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The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] supports the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa [NUMSA] in calling for the management of Volkswagen South Africa [VWSA] to comply with health and safety regulations.

It has come to our attention that many workers at the Uitenhage plant have been recklessly exposed to COVID-19 by VWSA in their quest to maximise profits. The company has flatly refused to obey health and safety regulations especially on social distancing. Workers were all forced to return to work without any consideration of their health and safety. As at 17 July 2020 120 employees had tested positive with one fatality.

When workers tried to alert management to the dangers they are facing on a daily basis the management responded by intimidating and victimising them. NEHAWU calls on VWSA to lift all suspensions against NUMSA shop stewards and to comply with all health and safety protocols with immediate effect. VWSA must immediately desist from scaring workers with spurious disciplinary hearings and focus on ensuring that workers are protected from contracting the virus.

What is happening at VWSA is the same as what is happening to frontline workers. Management of the healthcare facilities do not care about the health and safety of workers. This is clearly illustrated by the perpetual non-compliance to the Occupational Health and Safety [OHS] Act and intermittent supply of Personal Protective Equipment [PPEs]. In the healthcare sector, workers are also intimidated and victimised for raising sharply the failures by management to protect them and to provide decent working conditions.

We reiterate our call for the Department of Employment and Labour to ensure that inspectors are available to ensure compliance and enforce the OHS Act in all workplaces. Employers found to be non-complaint must face the full might of the law including temporary closure until compliance is guaranteed.

Workers need to be united more than ever to decisively defeat employers who are hell-bent on obliterating them because of their insatiable demand for profits. In this regard, NEHAWU supports all workers across all sectors of the economy and all over the world in their struggles for safe working conditions. VWSA is not an isolated incident, many workers are suffering in silence because they fear being victimised by employers for speaking against the non-compliance to the OHS Act. Workers are encouraged to speak up against intransigent, lethargic and reckless employers.

Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat