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THE HEALTH and welfare of workers demands much more than money; it requires decent living and working conditions. Living conditions can be bought with decent wages, but working conditions are another matter entirely and, in the bus transport sector, can have wide-ranging consequences.
Such consequences - the safety of commuters and of all road users - are at the centre of the deadlocked bus transport pay and conditions negotiations that went into mediation this week. A “split shift” proposal tabled by the employers was correctly labelled by the Transport and Omnibus Workers’ Union (TOWU) as irresponsible and dangerous.
It proposes that drivers report to work for a three-hour morning shift, have an eight-hour break and then work a further five hours. Unlike transcontinental airline pilots, there is no provision for sleeping accommodation during those eight hours.
What this entails is that a driver, usually living a considerable distance from the bus depot, spends on average an hour getting to work. Then there is the three-hour shift, followed by waiting around for eight hours for the next shift before taking perhaps an hour to get home. For most drivers, this could mean an 18-hour day with little chance of sleep.
This is a case of ensuring sleep deprivation, a technique used by torturers the world over and one that has been clearly shown to be a major cause of industrial and road accidents. A classic case that I reported on six years ago concerned Jurgen Gouws, the driver of Johannesburg Metrorail commuter train 9442 that ploughed into a goods train. Four passengers died and 17 were injured.
At a disciplinary hearing, Gouws was found guilty of “gross neglect of duty”. It was ruled that he had driven his train “recklessly and negligently”, passing signals and causing not only fatalities, but also R7m in damages to railway property. He faced a criminal charge of culpable homicide.
What happened was that Gouws fell asleep - which, when evidence was given at an arbitration hearing, was scarcely surprising. He had worked for seven days a week for months on end. In his last 14 shifts, eight had been for longer than 14 hours.
Jurgen Gouws was suffering from extreme fatigue. As Dr Alison Bentley, then head of the sleep clinic at the University of the Witwatersrand noted, had it been liquor, rather than sleep deprivation, which had brought him to that state, he would have been dead from alcohol poisoning.
It has been known for many years - and is still largely ignored - that just 17 sleepless hours will have the same effect on the average driver as being over the limit for alcohol consumption. There is also a cumulative effect when sleep is interrupted and when an individual stays awake for lengthy periods over several days, weeks or months.
So the fact that the bus employers are also demanding that drivers be financially responsible for any damage caused in accidents, has caused even more bitterness. As has the demand for a three-year, fixed increase deal.
When negotiations began, the unions had differing positions, with the bigger unions, the Cosatu affiliated Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) and the newest entrant to this sector, the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) tabling a demand for an across the board basic wage of R15 000 a month.
TOWU initially tabled a demand for a double-digit increase and minimum pay of R6 500 with a R2 000 to R3 000 increase for drivers, now earning between R9 000 and R10 000 a month.
But, by yesterday, differences among the unions had been resolved. Even the tension between Numsa - expelled from Cosatu - and Satawu seem to have dissolved although Numsa’s entry into the sector came largely as a result of defections from Satawu.
The combined unions want a one-year agreement and are now demanding an R8 000 basic wage and that bus transport employers adhere to the rules contained in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Given the gulf separating the sides, it is likely that a 30-day “cooling off” period will start today that could lead to a full-blown strike.
While such a stoppage would greatly inconvenience commuters, the issues at stake should result in widespread support for the positions taken by the unions.
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