Striking National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) members had until Wednesday to report for duty at the Ngqura Container Terminal or face dismissal, Transnet warned on Tuesday.

The Labour Court this week declared the 14-week Numsa-led strike at the port as illegal and unprotected, ordering the union to pay all Transnet’s legal costs.

In April, Numsa called on its members to embark on a no-work, no-pay strike, which had been characterised by incidents of violence as the majority of workers ignored the call to down tools.

The court stated that the union and its members had failed to follow the Labour Relations Act procedures governing strike action and that the union remained bound by existing procedural agreements between Transnet and its recognised unions.

Numsa, with only 100 members of Transnet’s more than 60 000 employees, did not have sufficient worker representation to be recognised, while unions, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and Utatu-Sarhwu, collectively represented about 80% of employees in the bargaining unit.

CEO Brian Molefe, in a media conference call, said he believed the strike was an internal union issue and had little to do with workers’ demands to the company, as many of the demands tabled by Numsa had already been addressed with the majority unions.

The Labour Court order applied to the port’s permanent employees, leaving any temporary workers, estimated to be about 20, short of a permanent opportunity as Numsa had embarked on the strike before Transnet could absorb them permanently into the operation.

The workers would now be integrated back into the operations over a 24-hour period on shift start on Wednesday, Molefe noted.

The industrial action had minimal impact on Transnet’s port operations, with no delays or congestion, owing to contingency plans, the dedication of nonstriking employees and heightened cooperation with major customers.

However, Transnet had heightened security around its employees and property as intimidation and violence characterised the strike, despite Transnet securing an interdict ordering Numsa and its members to stop acts of incitement, violence, property damage intimidation and lawlessness targeted at nonstriking employees.

A few striking Numsa members were arrested and charged over the acts of intimidation and violence.