The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) has expressed shock after its application for leave to appeal in the Constitutional Court has been dismissed.
The trade union said it filed for leave to appeal the decision by the Labour Court which granted an order to the Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL), to place the union under administration.
“It was escalated to the Supreme Court of Appeal which refused to grant the union leave to appeal and denied the union its day in court. The Constitutional Court took the easy way out and also refused to hear this matter thus denying us the opportunity to have this landmark court case to be heard. It is our view that the DoEL is bullying independent unions using the powers granted to it by the Labour Relations Act (LRA).
“It has become glaringly obvious that the DoEL is a hired gun by its sister departments in government, and this department is on a mission to destroy and loot targeted independent unions. The term of the current registrar has been plagued by nothing else, but the abuse of the LRA in attacking unions not affiliated with the ruling party,” HAITU said.
The union has also raised grave concerns.
“We have noted with great concern that sweetheart unions which are aligned to the employer and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and by extension, the government, are allowed to parade freely in a pool of gross non-compliance as long as they chant slogans to the government of the day. The registrar has been successful in ensuring that many independent unions are de-registered and they are made to focus on defending their existence against the DoEL, instead of defending workers,” the union’s president, Rich Sicina said.
He said, instead, they are forced to use workers’ money to defend themselves against state attorneys.
The union claimed the department is abusing state attorneys to ‘advance this dirty mission’.
“They are forced to use the money of workers to defend themselves against state attorneys. The department is abusing state attorneys to advance this dirty mission that they are on, and They know the court system is soft on them and hard on unions. Initially, the DoEL wanted to de-register Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) and even refused to register the union’s new name HAITU, and the new constitution which was adopted at the 3rd National Congress but surprisingly, it made a U-turn, following the legal push back from HAITU,” Sicina said.
The union alluded to the order for them to be placed under administration stems from the failure of its de-registration.
HAITU remains a registered trade union, and it assured its members it will continue to recruit and deliver a service. However, the union must work with an administrator appointed by the DoEL to convene the union’s national congress and officiate over administrative affairs for a full year.
“The union does not view this as a setback because the first prize for the state was to de-register HAITU and their plans fell apart. Placing the union under administration is their consolation prize as it is temporary and once the congress has been completed, we expect the administrator to vacate immediately, and we will continue to run our affairs as a union.
“The work of the union will not stop and our members can be rest assured that we will continue to defend them and ensure that we represent them in all their cases involving the employer. We will continue to be a radical no-nonsense trade union and they will fail to prevent us from forming part of the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council (PHSDSBC),” Sicina said.