Working For Dis-Chem - The Story of Ethelina - COSATU Today special

[Patrick Craven]

 

 

 

The Life of Ethelina, a Dis-Chem Employee

 

Mike Abrahams, SACCAWU media officer, 18 June 2010

 

“My name is Ethelina and I am fifty-eight years old. I am on strike at Dis-Chem. I work as a cleaner. I've been working for Dis-Chem since January 1996 and I still only earn R3600-00 per month. I live in a shack in Orange Farm, I started at Dis-Chem Randpark Ridge but was transferred to Cresta.

 

Every morning I get out of bed at 3:30am and leave the house before 4:00am, when my family is still asleep, to make sure I get to work on time at 7:00am. When I get home in the evening it is already dark, after seven sometimes even after 8:00pm. Then I must still cook, iron and wash clothes, feed and wash the little-ones before I can go to bed at after 10:00pm, because I must be fresh at four in the morning to go to work. Many times when the train is full I have to stand all the way. Sometimes I am so tired, I don't even have energy to cook, and I just give the children bread and tea and put them to bed.

 

My train fare is R150-00 per month and I spend a further R15-00 per day on taxi-fare, this mean I spend more than R300-00 on taxis every month. Every second week I work over week-ends and get one day-off during the week. I am the sole bread-winner in the family and have four dependents to take care of, two of my own children – young men who are still unemployed and looking for work and two grandchildren. In Orange Farm where I live, I stay in a one-bedroom shack, I want to extend it and even later build a proper brick-house for my family, but with my income and given my age it will not happen.

 

In 2003 I had an accident and my leg was broken, my leg was in a cast and I was in a wheelchair, but my bosses insisted I must come to work. I had to sit in a wheelchair still mop the floors, or I was going to loose my job. This was degrading and humiliating and I felt very angry and insulted by this.

 

My daughter Mavis also worked at Dis-Chem for seven years until she got to sick and passed-away, now I'm taking care of one of her children as well. While Mavis was sick, and with no-one to take care of her I asked my bosses to give me a few days off to make arrangements to send her to my sister in Cape Town that is at home and will be able to take care of her, but the bosses did not believe me. They insisted I must first bring my sick daughter to work so that they can see if she really is sick. Even when she came back from Cape Town later they told me to bring her to work to see if she is still sick, they did not believe me.

 

Shortly after that my daughter passed-away. When I went to the company about funeral benefits, they told me my daughter was out of work for to long and I received no funeral benefits for my daughter, despite the fact that they deduct funeral benefits. For Provident Fund they only gave me R5000-00 and told me the rest of the money must go towards paying tax, they did not even tell me how much it was. I had to depend and donations from family and friends and still had to borrow money from the loan sharks to arrange the funeral and bury my daughter. Today I'm still paying that loans, that's why I don't think I'll ever extend my shack or build a house for me and my family

 

All this make me very angry. I'm not the only one who suffer like this, there are many of my fellow-workers who suffer like this at Dis-Chem. This Company does not care about us workers, that is why I have joined SACCAWU and that is why we are determined to strike until Dis-Chem meet with our Union.”

 

Dis-Chem Pharmacies workers at outlets throughout the country has been on strike since 27 May 2010.

 

The workers demand:

 

Workers demands:
• Meaningful engagement with our Union aimed at meeting the following fair and reasonable demands;
• A minimum wage of R 3 500-00 per month;
• An across the board increase of 15%;
• All casual employees should be converted to permanent full-time employees after three months of employment;
• Parental Rights; a subsidized Medical Aid Scheme; a housing subsidy and meaningful long service awards.
• An immediate end to all forms of harassment and intimidation of workers who are currently on strike and are exercising their right to picket;
• That the Company should practice cordial industrial relations.