By Siphesihle Jele and Siphamandla Masimula
On August 20, 2020, Employment and Labour Minister Thembelani “Thulas” Nxesi released a government gazette on the draft code of good practice, aimed at eliminating violence, abuse, harassment and corporate bullying, specifically in the world of work.
This treaty has been released for public comment. This draft could not have been released at a better time than this, judging by the current scourge of gender-based violence (GBV), harassment and abuse that remains pervasive in South Africa.
What still remains to be seen is whether this government gazette, on the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, will ever be feasible, effective and reasonably practicable. Will it be another piece of labour legislation which lacks practical implementation by the private sector and/or the public sector?
Will anything be different this time around or it will just be another piece of paper, which only reflects as a smokescreen for a concern on corporate bullying by the Department of Employment and Labour and, subsequently, by the government?
This remains to be seen and asked. In May 2018 the #FNB4, who went through corporate bullying, corporate abuse and harassment, wrote the opinion piece on the then #FNB4 VS FNB case, which was published by www. africanews24-7.co.za, the opinion piece was titled: “Poor and downtrodden South Africans’ human rights still violated!”
The opinion piece seems to be more relevant today than it was in 2018, when it was published.
We are saying this because, among many other challenges faced by black bankers and/or any other employees in the private and public sectors, many still continue to experience numerous forms of corporate bullying, in any shape or form, without any corporate management taking full responsibility and accountability for their actions.
This is simply because the Department of Employment and Labour is incapable of implementing the required enforcement and justified penalties for non-compliance with the government’s legislation in the private sector.
This year, Siphesihle Jele and Siphamandla Masimula from #FNB4 recieved a request to assist 13 Standard Bank employees who also fell victim to corporate bullying and harassment.
These Standard Bank employees, just like the #FNB4, were suspended in January 2020 and again went through the inevitable process of losing their jobs – as it is the norm in corporate South Africa.
The action against these Standard Bank employees was called by the senior manager from Standard Bank, just like with the #FNB4.
This senior Standard Bank manager had promised to deal with them a year or so ago, and definitely delivered on her promise a year later, as she was trying to find any fault and/or trap them, to ensure that all 13 of them would be dismissed and remain unemployable in future.
Of course, the senior manager did all this with strong backing from the bank.
The 13 employees of Standard Bank were dismissed and even their trade union (Sasbo) was unable to assist them.
This is also the same trade union that failed the #FNB4 in their famous case against FNB, and this is the sole union with a monopoly over the financial sector. Regardless of the union’s failures, perhaps this could be attributed to the fact that there is no alternative union in the financial sector, hence the union acts as an extension of these banks. This is the only reasonable explanation that can be concluded.
This union lacks the ability to ensure accountability in a similar, if not the same, way as the Department of Employment and Labour, and both have rendered all the abovementioned workers (#FNB4 and the 13 former Standard Bank employees) in the private sector vulnerable, downtrodden and homeless.
Siphesihle Jele and Siphamandla Masimula are activists. They were previously in the employ of FNB and are known as part of the #FNB4.
The Star