Denied+Disneyworld+for+taking+the+Mickey,+Shelley+Banjo,+The+Star

The Star, Johannesburg, May 16, 2006 //Edition 3//
=Denied Disneyworld for taking the Mickey=


 * Shelly Banjo**

Twenty-seven Pick 'n Pay employees who won trips overseas for good service will not be going.

For more than a year, the employees from the chain store's branches around the South Africa looked forward to arriving in Disneyworld today. Instead, the employees said they were denied the trip because they are members of the SA Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union (Saccawu).

The union has been engaged in wage negotiations with Pick 'n Pay since January and seem to have reached a stalemate.

To support their wage demand, the union called a meeting in Bloemfontein at the end of April and decided to make a statement by urging members to work without their uniforms.

Pick 'n Pay, which complained about employees who were allegedly behaving "obstructively" by wearing pyjamas to work and deliberately working slowly, revoked the trip for Saccawu members.

But Nhlanhla Dladla, a Pick 'n Pay employee at the Carlton Centre in the Johannesburg CBD, said she won her prize before the negotiations started and that she did not attend the meeting. "I won this prize for good service, I worked hard," she said, dressed in the Pick '* Pay uniform of blue and red checked top and navy pants. "I feel betrayed by the company".

Dladla and the other members who won the trip last year remained at home while their managers and non-union employees set off to enjoy their two-week holiday at Disneyworld.

On May 10, the union members received letters from Pick 'n Pay management and were taken to the general office in Johannesburg.

Dladla's general manager, Anil Gopichund, wrote: "It is with regret (that) we have established your behaviour in the current unprotected industrial action has not only been unacceptable but continued in spite of any attempt made by your management to bring such action to an end …

"Therefore you can no longer be allowed to attend the forthcoming trip to Disneyworld."

Gopichund was unavailable for comment because he was on the plane to Disneyworld.

Employees were then brought to the main office and questioned. "They made threats," said Dladla. "I was told it was my duty to tell other workers it was their fault I had to forfeit the trip and an opportunity of a lifetime."

Thokozile Khoza, who works at the Pick 'n Pay in Epson Downs, Sandton, said: "They told me that I went to Bloemfontein to fight against the company that was sending me to Disneyworld. I was caught in a crossfire; I didn't even go to Bloemfontein."

Management maintain their actions were warranted. "Clearly, it was not appropriate to include staff to represent the company who had embarked on illegal action and brought the company's name into disrepute. Therefore, they were excluded," retail managing director Nick Badminton said.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3248116**

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