Plans to spread motor recruitment plan wider

How to deal with motorists that don’t pay for their petrol

Doris Nqetho

I'm a petrol attendant at Sasol in Margate. One night a customer told me to put R50 petrol. He was busy on his cellphone. After putting petrol I waited for payment.

I was suspicious and had my pen and paper ready. He closed the window and said, "I forgot my wallet, I'm coming back now, now!"He drove off and I quickly wrote down his registration number. He never came back.

I reported the matter to the employer who told another policeman who was in our shop. Luckily the customer was known to the policeman. He said he would talk to him and if he doesn’t bring the money a case will be opened.

After my day off I was told that the customer had come and paid saying that he had forgotten to pay!In the last Numsa News No 3 on page 5, there was a suggestion that petrol attendants should ask motorists to pay upfront for the fuel they require in their vehicles.

This sounds funny to me. We don’t know the capacity of the tank, we don’t know how much petrol is inside the tank and we don’t know how many litres it will take.

There are also different kinds of payment – cheque, petrol card or cash. It won't be easy to do that.We've discussed all the demands that were in Numsa News and agree on all of them except this one.

We think that while you are busy dispensing fuel that you should quickly write down the registration number (you could also ask other petrol attendants to help you – ie teamwork!) and fill in a form like this one.

We also welcome talk of the Fuel Retailers Association saying that it will call a meeting for all its members to discuss the closure of petrol stations at night because ATM bombing is common these days. That will save the lives of workers.

Doris' tip for petrol attendants

Numsa's National Executive Committee in August discussed a proposal to expand the motor recruitment programme to other regions.

NEC delegates were worried that if the union concentrates on recruiting new workers without having a programme of how they were going to be serviced once recruited, then it would put the union into more problems with accusations of poor service.Already recruiters are finding some workers don’t want to join because of bad experiences with service.

While the NEC in principle agreed to expanding the programme to other regions, the motor sector coordinator was instructed to draw up a detailed project plan.

Regions that want extra recruiters would also have to submit a strong motivation on why they would need extra person power.

For example, in some regions and locals their potential membership and actual membership is almost all motor members.

"That wouldn’t warrant more motor recruiters to be employed," explains Cedric Gina, Numsa's second vice president.Since the pilot recruitment project began in the middle of last year, three recruiters have signed up more than 4000 members in the Wits Central West, Ekurhuleni and Hlanganani regions.

MIDP beneficiaries must pass on benefits to workersNumsa's August NEC agreed on guidelines to submit to government around the new Motor Industries Development Programme (MIDP) that will come into effect from 2012.

The MIDP is a government programme that supports the auto and associated industries with various incentives to encourage auto assembler and motor components companies to become more competitive.

The NEC said the MIDP's beneficiaries must pass on these benefits to its workers:* any MIDP job expansion must provide quality, decent and secure jobs.

* MIDP beneficiaries should invest a percentage of their profits to guarantee workers full wages during short-time* MIDP beneficiaries may not utilise labour brokers or temporary workers.

* An MIDP subsidy should be used to address broad-based black economic empowerment. The NEC further demanded that government increase duty rates on imported vehicles to 80% as is the case in Thailand.

It also said that the Trade and Industry Ministry should urgently impose a limit on the number of fully imported vehicles and tyres flooding the South African market.

It said that South Africa must learn from countries that have experienced the same predicament and who used tariffs to protect their industries.

This country must firmly defend its national interests if we are to drive an industrial agenda that serves all its citizens.Mziwakhe Hlangani

MOTOR WORKERS WAGE INCREASES

All minimum wages will increase by 8% from September 1 2008. Detailed new wage rates will appear in the next Numsa News.

We just give you some examples here of the new minimum rates. Get details from your Numsa local office:New minimum rates from September 1 2008Petrol attendant R12.21 per hourGrade 3 R15.04 per hourGrade 6 R22.02 per hour

Women meet to plan trauma workshop

When workshops are held in Numsa regions there is often talk that the workshop must be “cascaded” down to locals. But how often does this happen?Often the cascade becomes just a trickle as few participants ever get around to passing on the skills they learnt in the workshop to their comrades in the locals.

However, the gender committee from the Kempton Park local who attended a regional workshop on dealing with trauma are determined to 'cascade' their trauma knowledge.

We learnt a lot,” says gender rep Nthabiseng Ntaje. “We learnt that men also suffer from trauma,” she says. In fact she thinks they suffer even more because if they have been traumatised, they tend to keep quiet and isolate themselves “and this causes stress.

And if the stress is not treated, it can lead to more serious illnesses and even death.”Getting injured at work “can also traumatise you,” Ntaje says. So too can rape.

She says that the workshop taught them about the value of counselling and where you can go to get counselled.Kempton Park local held their workshop on August 16.

Source

Numsa News