Stadium builders not celebrating

Johannesburg - Phakama James is six months pregnant and has been working as a cleaner at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium, but as the Soccer World Cup draws closer and the structure nears completion, she faces an uncertain future.

The 32-year-old mother of two, who lives with her grandmother in Diepkloof Extension 6, was hired in August 2009 and paid R80 for each 11-hour shift. On Tuesday she went to Soccer City stadium to work. By the end of the day she was unemployed. She was one of many picked from a group of job hopefuls at the building site's entrance and employed without a signing a contract.

"I've seen people lose their jobs every day. Today it's me. We were told that the contractor had finished his job, so we should leave after work.

"But what confuses me is that 10 other people were asked to work a double shift. So how can they be asked to work double shift if our contractor's job is finished?"

James is one of the many workers who have fallen through the cracks of what labour unions say is poor employment planning in stadium construction for the Soccer World Cup.

National Union of Mineworkers' spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka felt the construction companies were profiting at the expense of their workers.

"The people who've made a lot of money are big construction companies. Workers have not been able to get anything out of this."

"It's painful, 70% of construction workers are on limited contracts. We've done our best to talk to companies to place them in other public sector contracts."

Building and Wood Workers' International's (BWI) co-ordinator Eddie Cottle said the government, as the funder of the construction, had failed to use the project to create meaningful employment.

The BWI is an international federation of 318 trade unions in 130 countries that campaigns for fair working conditions.

"In total 22 000 jobs were created in the building of stadia. Noting the figures of main contractors, their core staff constitute the minority of workers."

He said the government was in a position to set up an employment strategy to ensure that decent and sustainable jobs were created, but said this was not done.

"It's worrisome that there was no employment strategy. There was a stadium building strategy," Cottle said.

Qualified bricklayer Mpho Muvhoni, 28, is one of the more fortunate Soccer City workers, as he is employed on a contract.

However, seeing his colleagues lose their jobs on a daily basis has left him doubting the security of his job.

"They told us that we'd go to another project in Sandton when our job is finished here, but then again no one really knows whether this will happen."

"People get fired every day. If they've worked three days they give them their three days' wages and then order them to leave the stadium immediately," he said.

Jobs city

BWI, union federation Cosatu and other trade unions had made an agreement with Fifa and the government that all workers employed for 18 months should be permanently placed with the main contractors. They were however dragging their feet, Cottle claimed.

"We had a deal with Fifa that companies would comply with government regulations. Two workers lost their lives in these stadia because of non-compliance by other contractors."

The department of public works and Fifa's Local Organising Committee had not responded to queries by the time of going to press.

Spokesperson for construction company Murray and Roberts, Eduard Jordim said it was difficult to give workers permanent jobs.

His company, which was awarded the tender to build Green Point stadium in Cape Town, hired 2300 people at the peak of the stadium's construction.

"In construction it's different because most of the workers you will not have until you have the contract. You hire on a daily basis," he said.

Murray and Roberts, he said had set up a centre inside the stadium during construction at which 1200 workers were trained. "We have another project in Limpopo. If we don't have enough space for the people we've trained, we find them other opportunities."

Murray and Roberts currently employs 33 000 permanent staff in various projects across the country.

Despite the layoffs, Soccer City's workers are proud of having been involved in building the 2010 landmarks. Solly Ndlovu, 25, from Kliptown started working on the stadium in 2008.

"My hands built what you see today. I've taken many photos to show my family and my friends that I was part of the people who built this. I feel very proud."

He, like hundreds of others, waits for the news that will put him back in the ranks of the unemployed. "If they tell me to go, what can I say? There's nothing I can do."

Phakama James meanwhile was sanguine about her future and believed everything happened for a reason. "I knew that I was working on a three-month contract, but I think they should have warned me that I would lose my job. But I trust God will make a plan for me and I'll find another job."

- Sapa