MEDIA STATEMENT

             FAWU OPPOSES SA BREWERIES OUTSOURCING PROPOSAL

 

The Food and Allied Workers’ Union (FAWU) vehemently rejects the latest restructuring proposal by the South African Breweries (SAB) that will affect its transport division and about twenty-seven employees displaced from being SAB employees. The proposal amounts to nothing but a system of reducing the salaries and benefits of workers selectively without a similar treatment for managers. We believe that this move could set a dangerous precedent in that it can advance to other departments and threatens the job security of all our members within South African Breweries.

 

We believe the company has misled the Union in terms of the Section 197 by not being completely transparent about the process as declared in the Labour Relations Act. The expectation of the business was supposed to among others detail its intention while according a platform for the Union to engage with the business meaningfully to also find alternatives of saving jobs and not to reinforce its intention to outsource. FAWU is appalled that the company is seeking to outsource to a third-party logistics service provider FADEL of which its head office is located in Paraguay. This does not make business sense at all or even economic rational as it undermine the protection of South African economy where opportunities of reinvestment are not for the local economy but ownership enjoyed outside the country. It is an initiative increase wealth for shareholders by outsourcing workers and as a result, creating cheap labour which seems to be a global venture for ABInbev.

 

This type of restructuring is an outright attack on organised labour and does nothing to advance the interests of workers in general and even the South African economy. It targets employees in the bargaining unit who is not even involved with the logistical management of trucks which is indicated as the rationale for the company’s proposed changes. 

We also condemn the company for its unrealistic timelines which projected implementation of proposed changes in October 2022 as this displace exchange of minds at any given bilateral engagement processes.

 

FAWU demands that SAB to indefinitely suspend the process of outsourcing and meaningfully consult with the Union with a sole purpose of ensuring job security for our members.

 

 For more information, please contact the General Secretary, Mayoyo Mngomezulu on 082 440 4039 or at mngomezulu.mayoyo@fawu.org.za or the Deputy General Secretary, Vuka Chonco on 082 499 5854 or vuka.chonco@fawu.org.za

 

Released by FAWU media officer, Dominique Martin on 082 498 5631