The Congress of South African Trade Unions is deeply alarmed by the number of workers who are infected by the Covid-19 Virus because of a lack of proper Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) in many workplaces. Thousands of employers are not complying with the new occupational health and safety protocols and conditions set out to reopen the economy.

This is endangering the lives of thousands of workers and, therefore, COSATU demands that the Minister for Employment and Labour issue a Ministerial Direction affirming the Right to Refuse Dangerous Work by all workers.

Thousands of essential workers have been infected by Covid-19 during the shutdown. These range from supermarket cashiers to nurses to doctors to SAPS members to Correctional Services officers. What they all have in common was the callous and inexcusable failure by their employers, both public and private, to provide them with the necessary PPEs and a safe working environment. Most of these workers do not have medical aid or access to decent medical care.  Most are breadwinners who support on average seven unemployed relatives.

When private-sector workers fall ill to Covid-19 and are required by law to go into self-isolation they are placed on unpaid leave in most cases. Many then go onto infect their families when in isolation at their homes. The Compensation Fund needs to strengthen its systems to ensure that these workers are taken care of and compensated accordingly.

The Safety of workers is non-negotiable, and the minister needs to be legally audacious and be bold in taking care of workers because lives are at stake. The general safety regulations in terms of the occupational health act states: 

"An employer shall not require or permit any employee to work unless such an employee uses the required safety equipment or facility provided in terms of this or any other regulation. "

The Mine Health and Safety Act goes further and states:

"The employee has the right to leave any working place whenever circumstances arise at that working place which, with reasonable justification, appear to that employee to pose a serious danger to the health or safety of that employee".

The Disaster Management Act empowers the government to issue Ministerial Directives as needed according to the needs of the disaster. Workers cannot afford to continue to have their lives placed at risk by barbaric employers, lethargic departments, or legislative weaknesses.

The Federation calls upon the Minister for Employment and Labour to immediately exercise his full legal authority as per the Disaster Management, Occupational Health and Safety, and Mine Health and Safety Acts to issue a clear and decisive Ministerial Directive protecting the rights of workers to refuse to perform dangerous work without the necessary PPEs and health and safety plans or measures in place.

We cannot allow exploitative and indifferent employers to abuse the power relations at work by forcing workers to work under unsafe conditions. Workers must now be empowered to defend their lives with the full protection of the law. Failure to act will lead to the nation losing both the fight to flatten the curve of the virus and the curve of poverty and unemployment. Anything less is tantamount to sending them to their early graves. 

Issued by COSATU