Patrons turned away from Spur at V&A as employees call out abuse

Staff of Spur at the V&A Waterfront are striking saying they are overworked and underpaid. they are preventing the store from opening. Pictures: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency(ANA)

Staff of Spur at the V&A Waterfront are striking saying they are overworked and underpaid. they are preventing the store from opening. Pictures: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency(ANA)

Published Mar 27, 2021

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Cape Town - Patrons were turned away by Spurs employees at the V&A Waterfront yesterday.

The employees at the Santa Anna Spur blocked the entrance to the eatery in protest over ill treatment from management.

The workers allege that they do not get payslips, don’t get leave days, when they work overtime and when they have to clock out, they are told not to because it has already been done for them which then leaves them with no record of working overtime among other grievances.

Nomsa Madondile, who has been working at the restaurant for 23 years, said things completely changed from what they used to be.

“We used to have a standard salary back in the day, now we only work 22 hours per week which has cut our salaries big time,” she said.

She said their employer does not even want to apply for Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (Ters) on their behalf.

She said added that they were offered a loan of R2 000 by the employer, which they found to be completely unfair, because they won’t be able to pay it back.

Madondile added that they also fear for their lives, when they work late.

“We do not get transport from work so people have to walk from the Waterfront to town at night and that is dangerous because we become targets and get robbed of our belongings.”

Beauty Fani said they have been trying to sit down and engage with management about their situation.

“They refuse to meet with us and with our representatives and when we meet them alone they disrespect and threaten to fire us,” she explained.

Fani said all they want is to sit down and solve the problems they are having but at the moment they can’t even raise their concerns.

She said they will be outside the entrance of the restaurant until they are listened to and they chose to strike over the weekend because it is the busiest time for the eatery.

A waiter Siviwe Bojana said they work closely with clients and they are always complaining about their service.

“We are overworked and have to work under pressure especially when the shop is busy, customers complain all the time we understand but we can’t do everything and it is not like we are giving bad service intentionally,” he said.

V&A Waterfront spokesperson Donald Kau said they are aware of the silent protest happening at the mall.

He said the protest is not affecting any operations or any store but they are monitoring the situation.

“They are not harming anyone so there is no need to forcibly remove anyone. We are keeping a close eye on them,” he said.

Yesterday, Spur spokesperson Moshe Apleni said they did not have a comment “at the moment’’.

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