Police go to court over 10111 staff picket outside the Midrand call centre

The South African Police Service on Friday headed to court to seek an urgent application in the Labour Court against the SA Policing Union (Sapu) to prevent 10111 employees picketing outside the Midrand 10111 call centre.

“Since Friday last week‚ SAPU affiliated 10111 employees who are striking at the Midrand Call Centre have been sporadically intimidating and threatening non-striking employees. Yesterday‚ Thursday 10 August 2017‚ these unlawful acts escalated into them hurling objects at and damaging state vehicles‚” the SAPS said in a statement.

Lieutenant-General Lesetja Mothiba‚ who sanctioned the court application‚ has also invited police unions Sapu and Popcru to a meeting on Friday “as an intervention from police management to break the impasse in terms of the 10111 strike and to find a way forward to resolve the strike“.

'Business as usual at 10111‚' despite strikeAs operators at the police 10111 call centre embark on a second wave of strike action‚ SAPS top brass say that your calls for help will not go unanswered. 

The 10111 call centre handles thousands of emergency calls per day and acts as a nerve centre to coordinate the responses of various police units.

Nearly 5‚000 operators represented by Sapu embarked on a strike last month‚ forcing the SAPS to deploy police officers to the 10111 call centre.

The strike action was temporarily suspended but has since been reinstated after negotiations for a salary increase deadlocked.

The SAPS said contingency plans are still in place at all 10111 call centres‚ “which continue to run efficiently with the strike having a minimal effect on service delivery“.

“Problems have only been experienced at the Midrand Centre‚ Gauteng‚ and we call upon Sapu affiliated employees to stop unlawful acts aimed at forcing others to join the strike.”