COSATU+sends+wishes+to+Oscar+Mabori,+16+floor+drop+survivor



=COSATU sends wishes to Oscar Mabori=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions sends its best wishes to Oscar Mabori, the Zimbabwean worker who survived a 16-floor drop in a lift in a building in Berea, Johannesburg, but with horrific injuries. We hope that he makes a full recovery.

His experience illustrates one again employers’ indifference to workers’ lives and safety, and the dangers of casualisation, which is particularly rife in the construction industry.

According to The Star, 10 August, on the day of the accident, some men in a bakkie approached Mabori, who had been unemployed for three months. They offered him and two companions work in Johannesburg, where they were renovating a building. There was no agreement about pay. The man in charge simply said he wanted to see how they worked and if they worked well, he would give them money.

He told the media that the men told him to climb on to the lift and help lower it down. The lift then plunged down and he was tossed around as it disintegrated around him and crashed into the ground.

The employers, Highpoint Elevators, have confirmed that the company had approached Mabori to work as an assistant on the site as ‘a casual’. By Wednesday no one from the company had been to see him in hospital. COSATU demands that the company covers all medical expenses and compensates Mabori.

We welcome the Department of Labour’s statement that all workers in South Africa are covered by the Compensation Fund, and that the Department is to investigate the state of the lift to see if it was maintained on a regular basis. But we want to see a broader investigation into the use of casual labour, and health and safety standards, in the construction industry.

It is unacceptable that workers can be hired on a casual basis to perform potentially hazardous work without any written contract of employment, medical cover, UIF, or even, as in this case, agreed rates of pay.

This case illustrates that the labour laws, far from being too restrictive on employers, are too weak to provide protection to thousands of casual workers, and need to be strengthened.


 * Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson), Congress of South African Trade Unions**
 * 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets, Braamfontein, 2017**


 * P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000**
 * SOUTH AFRICA**


 * Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24**
 * Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667**
 * Cell: 0828217456**
 * E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za**

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