Workers made to choose between fear of Covid-19 and their jobs

As South Africa entered level 4 of the national lockdown this week, some workers have been given an ultimatum by employers to choose between their fear of the Covid-19 coronavirus and their jobs.

However, this ultimatum has been met with strong opposition from Cosatu, which has urged workers to refuse to work if the workplace has not followed the set regulations to prevent the spread of the virus.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said that if workers deemed their workplace unprepared to resume work, they should refuse to work.

“Our position is that if workers find that their workplace is not ready and doesn’t comply with set regulations, they must refuse to work. No employers can fire employees during the lockdown when they are not following regulations,” said Pamla.

This comes after some employees were notified that, if they feared returning to work because of Covid-19, they would be replaced.

Some workers said they were afraid to return to work after reports that hundreds of essential workers who had been working throughout the five-week shutdown had been infected by the virus.

But their employers’ response was if they waited to deal with their fears, they would be replaced.

Tinashe Somakwabe (28), an employee at a butchery in Johannesburg, told City Press that his employer threatened to replace the workers if they continued to complain about safety precautions.

“Every time we tell our boss about our challenges  – having to be on public transport and the fear of carrying the virus back to our homes – his response is ‘choose between poverty and the disease’.”

Shonisani Mulaudzi (35), a freelance technician at a networking company in Pretoria, said he was anxious about his co-workers returning to work.

“As a freelancer, it is not easy for me to decide not to go to work because my pay comes from me actually working.

"My fear is that my colleagues will return and there is no way of knowing if they are sick or not. “This company isn’t capable of sanitising this place completely. I fear not going back to work will lead to starvation for my children,” Mulaudzi said.

Due to the national lockdown, many companies have struggled to pay employees a full salary or pay them at all. This has put a huge financial strain on scores of workers, some of whom did not get paid last month.

This is pushing them to return to work to avoid destitution.

Union federation Saftu in the Western Cape also highlighted the problem of staff being bullied by their employers into working.

“Workers are not being given proper personal protection equipment. We have workers being given one set of gloves to wear for the entire week, with gloves tearing on a regular basis.

"Workers are forced into unsafe transport with no social distancing. We have the city of Cape Town not sanitising or deepcleaning its offices,” said Saftu deputy provincial chairperson Nyaniso Sinyana.

Pamla warned companies against firing workers for refusing to work if workplaces were not complying with the health and safety regulations.

He said Cosatu would have the companies shut down if they did so.

By Friday, more than 300 healthcare workers had tested positive for the virus nationally, leading some political parties to question the decision by government to move the lockdown regulations to level 4, which took effect on Friday.

More than 1.5 million South Africans are expected to return to work this month.

---

Get in touch  City Press

+27 11 713 9001 news@citypress.co.za Media Park, 69 Kingsway Road, Auckland Park

Rise above the clutter | Choose your news | City Press in your inbox

City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.