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Cape Town - The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) on Tuesday threatened strike action if the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) did not deal with "incompetent" senior management and stop the outsourcing of critical services.
"Satawu is dissatisfied with incompetance within senior management and the outsourcing of critical services in Prasa," Satawu Western Cape official Luntu Sokutu told Fin24.
Satawu is the majority trade union represented within Prasa, comprising approximately 1 600 members across the country.
Between 300 and 400 members marched to the Prasa head office in Cape Town at 11:00 where they handed over a memorandum which threatened strike action if a response was not received within seven days.
"It is disappointing to learn that Prasa still outsources critical services required for the effective operation of the company. High rates of crime and vandalism of trains remain a serious problem, yet Prasa insists on the outsourcing of security services," the memorandum said.
"Casualisation of the workforce has brought enormous negative effects on about 700 workers employed by Prasa. This has resulted in the diverse and fragmented working experiences across the workforce of Prasa, resultantly excluding these workers from the employment benefits enjoyed by other permanent employees," it said.
Satawu accused Prasa of being run by "incompetent and unqualified individuals".
"The immense incompetency in the management of Prasa continues to frustrate not only those employed by the entity, but largely the citizens in the province, predominantly the working class, who depends on the trains to commute to work, and including the youth of this country that use the trains to get to school," the union said.
Prasa could not be reached for comment.
