The Department of Water Affairs is calling on workers engaged in an un-protected strike at its De Hoop Dam construction site in the Limpopo province to return to work immediately. The Department is keen to resolve the dispute speedily to ensure that work at the De Hoop Dam construction site resumes. Further delays will negatively impact on the completion of the dam and ultimately the delivery of water to the communities and mines.
Some workers are taking part in an illegal strike citing unhappiness over benefits related to their work contracts. The Department is seeking an interdict to stop the aggrieved workers from intimidating other workers and departmental officials, blocking access to the dam site and causing malicious damage to property on site.
The senior management of the Department is aware of the situation and has sent a high level team, lead by the Acting Deputy Director-General for Corporate Services, to the construction site to negotiate an end to the illegal protest action. The strike action started at the dam site in the Steelpoort area on Monday 28 May. It should be noted that the Department will invoke the principle of “no-work no pay” for those workers taking part in the unprotected strike. Employees have therefore been instructed to return to work and to use the established channels to discuss their grievances in order to find an amicable solution.
The Department understands that workers are unhappy about the benefits as agreed upon in terms of the Collective Agreement regulating the conditions of service for staff employed on contract in terms of section 76 of the National Water Act.
Enquiries:
Linda Page
Cell: 083 460 4482
Candice Williams
Cell: 071 152 9696
Department calls on workers at De Hoop to return to work
