More than 300 workers absorbed into the company’s terminals at ports in East London, Port Elizabeth and Ngqura. We are pleased to announce that with effect from Monday, 1 June 2014, all employees at our terminals in the Eastern Cape are now employed directly by the company, either on a full-time or fixed-term basis. This follows a Transnet-wide decision more than six months ago to take a bold step of doing away with labour brokers for those of our colleagues who work in our core operations across the company.
The decision follows a long consultative process especially with the leadership of our recognised unions, Satawu and UTATU SARWHU, which started last year. A total of 304 cargo coordinators, drivers for articulated trucks which run inside the terminals, port workers and shuttle drivers, joined the company between May and June. We are in the process to add another 50 and this process will be concluded by the end of this month. Over the last couple of months, our colleagues at the Ngqura Container Terminal near Port Elizabeth have been working tirelessly, creating robust processes in line with Transnet’s recruitment policies and procedures to employ suitably qualified candidates. Most of those who made the cut had previously worked at our facilities, but via labour brokers. We are pleased to say that this process has concluded and is firmly aligned with our commitment to create thousands of sustainable jobs through our multi-billion investment programme – the Market Demand Strategy.
This ground-breaking decision will ensure that all our colleagues are treated equally with dignity and respect when it comes to employment practices in our company.
Let’s welcome all our dedicated and hard-working colleagues to Transnet.