Strike at Australian-Owned Plant in Boksburg

More than 100 workers downed tools on Thursday at the CHEP plant in Boksburg.

About 110 workers at the CHEP plant in Jet Park, Boksburg, went on strike on Thursday, after two months of negotiations reached deadlock. CHEP, part of the Sydney-based Brambles group, supplies pallets to companies transporting goods in South Africa.

Employees are demanding permanent employee status, a wage increase of R2,500 a month, study assistance, a R5,000 housing allowance, medical aid, and branded protective clothing.

According to the Casual Workers Office (CWAO) and Simunye Workers Forum, representing the employees, the company offered a 5.5% wage increase, which it has now withdrawn, and has not agreed to take the workers onto the permanent staff.

CHEP does have permanent employees, but the striking workers were recruited and paid by a labour broker, C-Force. They say that though they have worked at CHEP for years, they are still treated as casual workers.

Thabang Mohlala, legal officer at the CWAO, said employees should legally be deemed permanent after working for a labour broker for three months. He said the workers had lodged a dispute at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and succeeded in being deemed to be CHEP employees. But the company and the broker took the matter to the Labour Court in 2016 and the CCMA award was set aside.

In 2017, the CWAO and Simunye Workers Forum went to the Labour Appeals Court, and the decision was overturned, after evidence was provided to show that C-Force’s operations were similar to those of a labour broker and not a service provider, said Mohlala.

But then, said Mohlala, CHEP had moved its permanent employees to other premises to do different jobs, and it had been difficult to get equal employment conditions for the workers who had won their case.

Brian Dlamini, who has worked as a pallet painter for six years, said he was finally deemed an employee in 2019, but in 2023 CHEP temporarily dismissed him for two weeks without pay. Although he was called back to work, he is concerned about being treated as a casual worker without job security. He said workers wanted to be seen as permanent employees with full benefits. (GroundUp is not in a position to verify his account.)

Derrick Mthethwa has been working as a pallet repairer for 18 years. “The job is not easy, and if we become permanent, we can receive better pay,” he said.

Alisdair Sinclair, vice-president of CHEP Sub-Saharan Africa, said the company was “committed to engaging in a fair and transparent process, in full cooperation with the relevant legal and industry bodies, including the CCMA”.

“The safety and wellbeing of everyone on our sites remains our top priority. We are monitoring the situation closely, he said.”

Ryan Drinkwater from C-Force declined to comment.

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