Business Day
*Court orders Cosatu to stop threatening labour broker Transman* *Alistair Anderson, Business Day, Johannesburg, 15 March 2012*LABOUR broker Transman yesterday obtained an urgent interdict in the high court in Johannesburg against the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) compelling the federation to stop threatening the company's Qwa Qwa branch in the Free State.
Cosatu has campaigned for the banning of labour brokers, and has accused these companies of abusing the workers they place.
The threats against Transman's Qwa Qwa branch were made during the one-day strike by Cosatu last week. The strike was in protest against labour broking and e-tolling plans in Gauteng.
Cosatu has branded the practice as modern-day slavery.Cosatu's Qwa Qwa branch sent Transman a fax during the strike in which it allegedly demanded the company close its Qwa Qwa office for the day.
The fax read: "Cosatu is opposed to the practice of labour brokering, which is another form of human trafficking that continues to condemn thousands of workers to insecure jobs, with poverty pay and with no benefits and no job security, and your business does not assist our people to get out of poverty, but rather sinks them into the highest level of poverty."
Transman had until 5pm to send home its staff and close shop "otherwise the workers will never rest until you are out".
Transman's attorney Sean Sim said the company took legal action because staff did not feel safe. "Cosatu was given a chance to respond to correspondence we sent, but they did nothing. My client was concerned that its staff's safety could not be guaranteed and rightfully so," he said.
Mr Sim said Transman had also lodged a defamation case against Cosatu. "We believe that unions calling labour brokers human traffickers and slave labourers amounts to defamation," he said.
He said that there was a possibility of other labour brokers joining the case against the federation.
Angela Dick, the CEO and founder of Transman, said that labour brokers were angered by the way in which Cosatu painted the companies in terms that were untrue and offensive. "I want to stand up for my industry and protect my staff," she said.
Ms Dick said she objected to Cosatu saying that temporary workers were difficult to sign as members of the union.
"All of my staff can join any union they want even if they are temporary, but the R124 fee to join Cosatu is a lot of money for temporary workers."
There has been tension between the African National Congress (ANC) and Cosatu, over the ANC's decision to regulate labour brokers and not scrap them entirely.
Cosatu is arguing that labour brokers, which they refer to as "middle-men", exploit vulnerable workers who have to share their minimal income with those who brokered their employment, while they receive no benefits or job security.
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