Dear Judi

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Dear Judi

I write this letter because I think Numsa will help me on my job. I am working at Kriel Tyre Changer, therefore my manager used to say he will suspend me for unnecessary things. So I want to know what am I supposed to do with that situation because what I have seen is that he will suspend me and I am not going to get anything. Even on Saturday I am working but I don’t see that that day they pay us.

Sindile Thafeni

Hi Cde Sindile

Kindly go to your nearest Numsa Local or phone me for the address at 011-6891700. You will be afforded an opportunity to clarify the “unnecessary things” that your manager accuses you of and how to get you out of that situation. In future please give us your contact details so that we are able to act on your complaint immediately.

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Dear Judi

I am a guy at the age of 30 years old and I am working at a contract as a general worker. I have a problem with a contract which I am working for. My problem is that I am not registered at this contract I am working for. But I don’t have rules and regulations of central and union and I’m only registered with UIF so I joined the union myself. I am wondering if I can get more information from you.

DJ Sikhosane

Comrade DJ

It is so difficult to analyse the kind of problem you are faced with. This also makes it even worse to decide on an action plan. I need to know things like for instance which industry are you employed at, what is the duration of this contract, is it fixed or unlimited. Don’t forget to also include the name of the union you are a member of. With this in mind, I think I will be able to give you the “rules and regulations”. Phone me at 011 6891700.

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Dear Judi

I find it difficult to believe that my case will take 2 or 3 three years before the hearing, again it is difficult to accept the reason of that because of 1. Labour Court have many cases, 2 proceeding system used by an institution. Comrade, my question is why Numsa can’t challenge this procedure or use the other Labour Court in the other five province. Allow me to ask this question again. How many lawyers in Numsa apart Mrs Norma?

Hi Comrade

Let me answer your questions bottom up, nĕ. Except for Cde Mrs Norma Craven , there are four legal officers here at head office. In the past each one of them used to be allocated a Numsa Region to attend to cases from various factories within a particular local. If for instance there was a case from say your factory in Brits and Brits is in the Northern Transvaal region, then there will be a legal officer at head office who deals with cases from that region.

But with the employment of two new officers, your case is handled randomly by any of them. There are four Labour Courts in SA. According to cde Sakumzi Booi , the paralegal officer at Head Office, “the one in Johannesburg caters for Gauteng , Mpumalanga , Limpopo and Northern Cape / Free State , Durban handles the KZN region, the one in Port Elizabeth takes all cases in the Eastern Cape Province and then there is another one in Cape Town which takes all Western Cape disputes.”

Mind you this is not just for cases that come from Numsa’ sectors but this is for the many cases from all different sectors of our economy. What this means is that you cannot swap over cases from one province to another because there is a backlog in this court.

One other thing worth mentioning is that there are too many bottlenecks in the various courts, to a point that the state has even changed the labour laws. It has introduced something called pre-dismissal arbitration. This was seen as a way of softening the effects of workers having to wait for their cases to be heard in those courts. But obviously, depending on how you look at it, this has its own defeating outcomes. Read more about it in “Dear Judy” in the October Numsa News.

_______________Dear Judy

I was a Numsa member since from 1988 to 1992. Unfortunately I had some problems with other members which eventually caused a big corruption without consulting the office bearer. The problems we have is to bring all the staff together for the purpose of sorting some of the problems we have. Most of the problems we have like employment. I can be pleased to be helped and one other thing I

don’t trust some of the workers they maybe bought or bribed to sell me because I lost everything, after I can be very pleased. If I try some organisers they don’t take any notice or consider about. But what is my main fact is that we want to march for employment.

Shop steward Johannes Ndlovu, Caluza BC School.

Hi Comrade Johannes!

I want to help you but you don’t give me enough information to advise you. Please phone me on 011-689 1700 and I will phone you back to see how I can assist you.

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To all comrades:

Please include your contact numbers, name of factory, area where your workplace is located with every letter you send to Dear Judi! Feel free to write in the language of your choice. Thank you

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