Staff at city convention centre stage protest

ABOUT 50 waitrons, cleaners and chefs staged a protest at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) last night, furious that their employers had failed to pay their salaries on Wednesday.

They are employed by labour broking company Staffing Direct.

A company official tried to explain the problem but workers would have none of it and demanded their money immediately.

“We are waitrons, cleaners, chefs and so on and we work hard. This is not the first time our bosses at Staffing Direct don’t pay us on time. We’ve had problems since November,” said waitress Babalwa Ndabukelana.

Her colleague, Anda Charlie, said: “They are messing up. Since 20 January I’ve been paid only R218 – and all because they lost the time sheets. How must I cope? I have two children to take care of.”

When Staffing Direct operations manager Michelle Marais arrived at the CTICC she was surrounded by angry employees who demanded they be paid immediately. “Our Pastel system crashed on Wednesday before we had to transfer payments. We are working around the clock to fix the problem. You will be paid. We will sort it out,” she told them. Her explanation was greeted by: “When? Tell us when. You are lying.”

Marais apologised to workers for the inconvenience and said they would be paid soon.

Asked about claims that the payment delay was not the first, she said: “We started the contract in November and in the first month it (payments) took long, due to the big number of staff.” Workers said that about 200 of them were employed at CTICC, were paid R18 an hour and their salaries depended on the number of hours and shifts worked.

Said Charlie: “We don’t have a problem with CTICC. Our problem’s with Staffing Direct.”