Cape Town - Security guards at Tygerberg Hospital have downed tools, claiming their employer, Nikao Protection Services, has been deducting money meant for their provident fund, but when queried, the payments were not reflected in the relevant statements.
Staff downed tools on Wednesday in response to this.
One affected staff member, said R258 is deducted monthly, meant for the provident fund.
“We’ve tried to find the forms called PFA (Pension Funds Adjudicator) and lay a complaint but they didn’t answer us.
“We signed a complaint form at Salt (Employee Benefits), they didn’t answer us.
“And the unions are telling us a story every time, every time we are telling them about the provident fund, (they) telling us we must do this to the company, they don’t come with the way forward.
“For a while now, we are trying to resolve this issue.”
The individual visited the Salt Employee Benefits office for a statement on the payments, with the last visit to the office in February.
“They started deducting my money in July 2022, but only two months appeared there - March and April 2023. Which means it’s 570-something.”
In an email correspondence from Salt, dated April 12 to the employee’s union, it said the last payment received from Nikao was on May 5, 2023, for the month of April, 2023, and no other payments have been made since.
“There have been several conversations between the employer and Jolene Grace (Salt client liaison officer) whereby the employer had made promises to settle the outstanding monies by way of selling their property which never materialised,” read the email correspondence.
Members were then informed that they could lodge criminal cases against the company, lodge a complaint through the Pensions Fund Adjudicator, and/ or lodge fraud cases with the National Prosecuting Authority.
Nikao Protection Services’ Nikie Govender said the matter would be dealt with by April 23.
“So basically they downed tools because on April 30 their contract comes to an end at Tygerberg Hospital. We can’t guarantee employment with the staff if the hospital does not guarantee us employment so we on a month-to-month basis contractual agreement,” said Govender.
She also claimed that consistent payments have been made to the employees’ provident fund and said it was “false” that the last payment had been made for April 2023.
She said the action from the workers was not related to the provident fund payments, and further refused to respond to any other questions until the names of the staff were provided to her.
Abanqobi Workers Union (AWU) provincial secretary, Jackson Mabongo, said they engaged with the company on March 26.
He said the owner of the company said payments and proof thereof would be done on or before April 23.
In written correspondence, the company said the outstanding amount to the provident fund would be paid by April 23, 2024.
Tygerberg Hospital said a small staff component downed tools on Wednesday but services resumed by 9.30 the same morning.