The CCMA has ruled that dismissed Luxor workers must be reinstated and back wages paid.
The Mail and Guardian reports that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has ruled that Luxor Paints workers dismissed for carrying sticks during a strike must be reinstated.
In February 2018, 181 workers at Luxor Paints in Boksburg went on strike over transport and housing allowances, medical aid and job security. Some of the workers were dismissed for carrying sticks and other objects during the strike. However, despite some workers who weren’t at the pickets also lost their jobs, because they were considered guilty by association.
The workers approached the CCMA, which ruled that their dismissal was unfair. The CCMA order stipulates that all the workers report for duty on 1 February and that Luxor Paints repay almost R40-million in back wages by 1 February.
Luxor Paints representatives said some of the 111 striking workers carried sticks to intimidate, harass, and threaten security personnel at the arbitration hearing and another 70 were accused of either having knowledge of wrongdoing or deliberately obstructing Luxor from conducting business.
The CCMA’s verdict ultimately came down to video footage of the strike which contradicted Luxor’s testimony. The recording showed that the private security guards, and not the workers, incited the violence. The arbitration ruling says, “In the present matter it was the armed security personnel who perpetrated the violence. One cannot stop to wonder why the respondent [Luxor] felt the need to hire heavily armed security personnel from the first day the strike commenced. This is quite baffling.”
