Cape Town - Security employees working for soccer club boss, Chippa Mpengesi, have ended up with the short end of the stick as a blame game ensued over why they have not been paid for two months.
According to the employees of Chippa Training Academy (CTA), deployed at various train stations in the province, more than 200 securities have not been paid their salaries for March and April.
They said they received inconsistent salary payments, and have also been subjected to poor working conditions.
On Monday, the aggrieved employees handed over a memorandum of demands, demanding among others, the payment of their salaries for March and April.
National Security And Unqualified Workers Union (Nasuwu) spokesperson, Thobela Nkone, said they were informed that the issue apparently lay between Chippa Protection Services and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa).
“We are treated like animals, the place of work lacks hygiene and at the same time, we are also expected to perform and deliver.
“We have months where we don’t get paid, and when we approach the employer he refers us to Prasa, yet Prasa says they have paid everything to the employer, they are basically playing cat and mouse with our lives.
“Several employees are suffering, and others are being taken to court for failure to pay child maintenance.
“We have tried to engage the employer several times but we don’t get assistance, we want to get paid consistently so that we are able to provide for our families. We took these jobs because we needed them not because we had time to waste,” he said.
The union’s memorandum read: “We as Chippa Training Academy ... have been working under poor working conditions for many years.
“We have been posted to places where there is no electricity, toilets, or guard rooms, and not safe to work at.
“(We have been working) without jackets or rain suits provided to us by our employer. We buy uniforms with our own money to look presentable and neat in front of you. After all the sacrifices we have made when it’s time to get paid our salaries, our employer always has stories.”
Chippa Protection Services, however, laid the blame on the shoulders of Prasa, to which the company is sub-contracted for security services.
Spokesperson for CTA, Temba Yawa, said: “The company is contracted to Prasa (Western Cape) for the provision of security services in the Cape Town Metropole rail network.
“Prasa has, since May 2019, failed to honour its contractual obligations in terms of the contract entered into with CTA by not applying yearly increments on invoices of the company (and) owing more than R20 million arrears.
“Prasa has failed to abide by the 2019 High Court ruling, in that they have provided a security plan which would be inclusive of all security service providers in the Cape Town rail network and that no other security service providers would be sourced outside of those currently providing.
They have instead appointed a new service provider.
“This provider is paid more than R5 000 per guard, as opposed to what they pay CTA,” said Yawa.
Prasa spokesperson, Zino Mihi, did not answer questions about whether payments were made to Prasa.
Mihi said: “We have contractual obligations with Chippa as a service provider. Any issues of performance and non-performance are addressed as per the service level agreement between the service provider and the client.”
Mihi said they were not intervening in the matter as the issues were “between employer, in this case, Chippa, and its employees”.
Cape Times