You can't reward strike-breakers‚ judge tells abrasives company

A company that paid “tokens of appreciation” to staff who helped it survive a strike has been reprimanded by a judge.

Such payments undermined the right to strike‚ Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje ruled in the Labour Court in Johannesburg‚ ordering Element Six Production of Springs not to make them in future.

He denied an application by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) for the same payments to be made to all its members at the company‚ including those who went on strike for four weeks in 2014.

That would “condone or compound (the company’s) illegitimate conduct”‚ he said.

The abrasives company‚ which had 980 employees at the time of the strike‚ told the court that “tokens of appreciation” were paid a week after the strike ended to staff - mainly non-union members - who had manned the production line to keep the company operational.

Tlhotlhalemaje said there were several problems with the payments:

- They might make staff reluctant to withdraw their labour in future‚ undermining the right to strike;

- Staff who continued working could benefit twice - from the payments and from a pay increase achieved as a result of the strike;

- They might cause disunity among union members‚ leading to violence; and

- They were likely to discourage employers from addressing strikers’ legitimate concerns.

“(Element Six) has refused to disclose to Numsa how much was paid to those employees‚ other than contending that the criteria for the payment were objective and fair‚” said the judge.

“The veil of secrecy… leads to an inference that these payments were not merely made as a token.”

He ruled that the payments amounted to unfair discrimination in terms of the Labour Relations Act.