Spar Owner Ordered to Pay Workers Millions in South Africa

A Spar franchisee in South Africa has been ordered to pay millions of rands to workers for unlawful deductions on earnings, as well as non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage (NMW), said the Department of Employment and Labour.

On Monday, the department welcomed the outcome of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to grant eight arbitration awards against the eight Spar outlets.

The Spar owner of the outlets now has to comply with compliance orders and pay all complainants an amount of R11.9 million.

“The respondent is further ordered to comply with clauses 3.3 to 3.16 of the same compliance order within 14 days upon receipt of the awards,” said the department in a statement.

Failure to comply will result with the Spar franchisee having to pay accrued interest.

The CCMA’s decision follows inspections conducted in May 2019, which were carried out after a series of complaints was received about alleged gross violations of labour laws that were happening at Spar stores across the country.

On investigation, all the stores which happened to be violating the labour laws were found to be owned by a Mr Giannacoupolous. These outlets employ 565 workers.

Nine of the 10 stores affected were based in Gauteng and one in the North West: Spar Orchards, Dely Road, Doornport Spar, Montana Spar, Wierda Spar, Silverton Spar, Zambezi Super Spar, Rietfontein Spar, Silverplace Spar and Safari Spar in Rustenburg.

Issues raised at the Spar outlets in terms of labour laws violations included:

• Failure by the employer to issue employees with contracts;
• Long working hours without overtime compensation;
• Sunday pay, public holidays and leave not granted according to the law;
• The complaints also related to the hiring of illegal foreign nationals, and
• Illegal deductions.

Source: SAnews.gov.za