Mineworkers' Union protests to Eskom over affirmative action

Sapa, 8 June 2000

The predominantly white-Afrikaans Mineworkers' Union is to hand over a memorandum on Friday to Eskom, protesting against the parastatal's affirmative action programme.

Next week, arbitration between the union and Eskom will commence in a lawsuit over what the MWU claims is "Eskom's unfair discrimination against two female MWU members".

MWU spokesman Dirk Hermann said on Thursday the memorandum would point out that, in its experience, Eskom's management treated "members of the so-called non-designated group" as second-class employees and used race as its only criterion in its employment equity programme.

The memorandum further called for funds to be made available from the "non-designated group" in the active economy through training and job creation programmes and alternatives to be provided for them in the employment equity process.

Last week, on the deadline for companies with more than 150 employees to submit their proposals on implementing the Employment Equity Act, the MWU sent a memorandum to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana urging the minister to ensure that affirmative action did not lead to "new forms of injustices".