UCT turns its back on cleaners

A WORKER-STUDENT alliance at UCT has hit out at the institution’s management for “reneging” on a promise to insource all contract workers.

This comes after more than 40 cleaners were given casual employment contracts, instead of the permanent jobs they had been promised.

The workers, joined by about 100 students, staged a protest at UCT yesterday.

The protesters said UCT had given a group of about 45 cleaners from Metro Cleaning Services casual contracts last month despite being promised permanent jobs.

UCT management said yesterday discussions with the workers were under way. A 43-year-old worker, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job, said she joined yesterday’s protests because UCT and the trade unions had left workers in the lurch.

“We didn’t get help from anyone last year when we were told we are getting fired. No one from our company or the unions guided us. No one explained what we should do in moving forward. Some of us have been here since 2012, but the university still pretends not to know us. We are alone.”

Another worker, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he was “shocked” that UCT had turned its back on the workers.

“I am a father. My kids are dependent on me and I need to provide for them. My kids need to go to school. Our shop stewards and the university told us we would be insourced.

“This one time they told us to bring our names, IDs, bank statements and addresses because we were told we would be insourced. Now we are shocked that UCT doesn’t want us,” he said.

Late last year, UCT vice-chancellor Max Price had announced that approximately 1 000 outsourced employees would become part of the UCT community on July 1 this year.

This was after an alliance between workers and students forced the university’s hand to change its outsourcing policy.

In October last year, Price agreed to “the principle of insourcing”, saying the university’s council had recommended that UCT commit to insourcing all outsourced services at the university.

National Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) UCT joint shop steward Mzomhle Bisa said it had taken workers a decade of struggle to bring outsourcing to an end.

UCT had buckled under the pressure of the worker-student alliance, he said yesterday.

Class-three workers, such as the cleaners protesting yesterday, had previously earned just over R3 000 a month, but would now earn more than R7 500 a month.

“The increase in salary and the benefits like medical aid and opportunities for family members to study at the university for free will no doubt please the workers. It is a massive victory, but without the students’ help none of this would have happened.

“We were struggling with the university for years. Now we have to show these cleaners the same support.”

Supporting the workers yesterday were the Left Students Forum (LSF).

LSF spokesperson Thabang Bhili said the cleaners had fallen victim to a loophole in UCT’s insourcing agreement.

“We see that UCT management is in contravention of the agreement and have reneged on its promise to insource all outsourced workers. UCT didn’t really handle the process as well as we had hoped.”

He said the students would support the cleaners in protest action at the university until their demands were met.

“We cannot have a situation where a small group of workers are left stranded. They were promised permanent jobs and we will see to it that they get them,” Bhili added.

UCT spokesperson Pat Lucas said university management was in discussion with the workers to resolve the matter.

“We are confident that these negotiations will achieve a positive outcome,” she said. carlo.petersen@inl.co.za

@carlo_petersen

Workers have fallen victim to a loophole in insourcing agreement