Hotel staff down cutlery

WORKERS at the Khoroni Hotel in Limpopo have downed tools after wage increase talks reached a stalemate at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

Khoroni is a division of international hotel group Peermont Global. The strikers, mainly members of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsa), are demanding better working conditions and a 10percent wage increase. Khoroni Hotel is offering eight percent.

Nupsa general secretary Success Mataitsane yesterday blamed the employer for the strike. He said Khoroni's offer was "meaningless" because some workers still earned less than R1000 a month.

"Negotiations have failed, that is why we are on strike until a new offer is made," said Mataitsane.

The union has also accused Khoroni of "bullying" after the hotel allegedly suspended shop steward David Matumba when negotiations hit a snag.

Khoroni workers said the hotel should pay them a living wage like their counterparts in the industry.

But hotel manager Albert Eksteen claimed that workers were paid "competitive wages and additional benefits".

"This whole situation is very unfortunate. Hopefully, through continued negotiations we can come to a rational and speedy resolution of this dispute," said Eksteen.

Mataitsane said Khoroni was negotiating with the union based on a 2007 agreement which expired in 2008.

But some workers had allegedly returned to work after Matumba's suspension "because we are being intimidated and the suspension was aimed at weakening us", said some of the workers.