The man who intervened when he saw Steers staff in Menlopark, Pretoria, doing gardening clad in their uniform is a unionist and has told Sowetan he is taking the matter further despite the company having said it is addressing it.
Lebusa Dave Mamaregane, a unionist affiliated with the SA Workers Union ya Bashumi, said he was even at the restaurant on Thursday discussing the matter further, as he wants to either take it to the labour court or bargaining council.
Mamaregane said he was driving past the shop when he saw the workers wearing Steers uniforms doing gardening.
“As a leader of a trade union, I approached them, as I knew this is wrong based on the Labour Relations Act insofar as the job description applies. When I asked them why they were gardening they said only God knows.”
Mamaregane said the workers told him this was not the first time they were doing gardening and in fact, when the store is not busy, they are instructed to do this even though they are hired for different roles, including chefs.
“They have been doing that for years; it’s a culture. Some of them are chefs and can’t be doing any other things outside cooking and grilling. But maybe what they can assist with is cleaning at the discretion of the owner but not doing gardening, as it violates occupational health as far as hygiene is concerned. They are not even being paid extra for that work; it’s normal.”
According to Mamaregane, they have identified the manager as the main problematic person, as the one who instructs on gardening as and when.
“He is taking advantage because at no point in the engagements [with Mamaregane] did they mention the staff was doing gardening because of cost-related problems.”
Mamaregane said they are doing some investigative work onsite and some allegations have also come up, for which they are still gathering evidence.
“There are some developments which will make us go back there on Friday.
“We were there the whole of today doing some investigations. They are not yet our members, but we must assist people... as a matter of sake,” Mamaregane said.
In a statement on Thursday, Steers distanced itself from the incident, stating it was not standard procedure; however, staff were instructed by the manager to help to remove excessive weed growth due to a delay in landlord maintenance after the December festive period.
“Following an immediate investigation, we established that the manager asked team members to remove excessive weed growth due to a delay in landlord maintenance after the December festive period. While keeping a clean exterior is important, this work should not be carried out by team members. This is not standard practice at Steers and is unacceptable,” the franchise said in a statement.
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