A group of dismissed security guards picketed at the entrance to UWC on Thursday, demanding to be reinstated. Photo: Barbara Maregele
31 March 2017
Although the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has said it cannot afford insourcing, dismissed security guards say they will not give up their fight to be reinstated.
On 13 January, Securitas dismissed the 144 workers on charges of being absent from work without permission, “hostage” taking and “assault and robbery”. They were informed of their dismissal via SMS.
The workers have admitted to being absent from work, but said they were forced to leave as students had shutdown the university in October 2016. They deny claims of participating in a “hostage situation”.
On Thursday, a dozen people picketed outside the Symphony Way entrance to the university. Some motorists driving past, hooted as the group held up posters which read: ‘We demand our jobs back’ and ‘Remove Securitas at UWC’.
Dismissed worker Amanda Soya said they were “desperate to start working” at UWC again.
“We’ve been without work since last year. Most of us are the breadwinners in our homes, so our families are suffering. Most of us don’t qualify for UIF,” she said.
They were last paid in October.
“We want to know why we can’t be insourced by UWC. We want to go back to work because we don’t want to miss out on all the opportunity to study and other benefits. We also want to know why UWC won’t get involved in our case?” Soya said.
Soya said that when they tried to return to work after the shutdown, the company applied for an urgent interdict preventing them from returning to the campus. This interdict was thrown out by the Labour Court in November.
UWC spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said the University Council has reviewed its financials and found that “insourcing at UWC is unaffordable”.
Tyhalibongo said the Council has already supplemented the income of outsourced gardeners, cleaning and security staff by R2,000 a month. He added that the University has offered to assist Securitas with mediation should they decide to take up the offer.
Mark Sangster, the director of corporate governance at Securitas, has previously told GroundUp that they “have video footage of both the alleged assault and hostage [takers] holding managers against their free will. They were therefore able to identify the staff who were implicated.”
Sangster told GroundUp on Thursday that “the process must be allowed to run its course” as the reinstatement of the dismissed workers has been referred to the CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration).
Sangster added that it was not their place as the service provider to comment on the debate around insourcing.