The Labour Court has overturned an ex parte court interdict obtained by the City of Tshwane on March 24 against workers who engaged in a violent protest over a salary increment.
The order was granted pending the hearing of the matter brought up by the municipality against the regional SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and its affiliated employees for allegedly being behind the protest.
At the time, the city expressed concerns about acts of vandalism on municipal infrastructure and the fact that service delivery was negatively impacted.
The protest broke out on the back of an application by the metro on March 8 at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council, where it sought to be exempted from the implementation of the salary increase collective agreement with the unions.
The court heard the case on July 21 and it handed down judgment on Tuesday.
The court said the city formed a view that the protest was fuelled by Samwu workers by virtue of pictures taken of some participants wearing the union branded regalia and flags.
“For a strike to exist there must be a demand. The applicant did not sufficiently dispute the allegation that there was no demand,” the court said, concluding that “there was no strike action”.
The court further shot down the argument by the City that Samwu members had re-initiated the strike action, which was successfully interdicted last year in October.
“There is no evidence to suggest that the protest action proven by pictures annexed to the founding papers was in furtherance of a strike action,” the court said.
In its court application, the municipality attached a list of thousands of workers alleged to be Samwu members.
The court blasted the City for the attachment of names of alleged Samwu-affiliated workers, saying it was “an inappropriate practice”.
“For all we know some of the listed employees may have been on leave or even nowhere near the scene where the exhibited pictures were taken,” the court said.
The Pretoria News reported in March that among the interdicted workers there was the late municipal worker, Walter Mnguni and others who have been on suspension.
The court said: “Employers can not obtain interdictory reliefs to secure them perpetually as it were against a strike action. It ought to be remembered that strike action is constitutionally guaranteed. The only time this court may gag a strike action is if it does not comply with the Labour Relation Act.”
According to the court, what emerged on March 15 2022 when the protest broke out didn’t amount to strike action.
“By confirming the order in question this court shall be imputing that Samwu and all the listed members acted unlawfully as alleged or threatened to act unlawfully,” the court said.
Pretoria News