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A group of temporary workers who believe that BCM owes them almost half-a-million rand after seven years has now approached the high court for relief.
The 43 former BCM community works programme (CWP) employees were never paid by the metro for work done in 2011, said former CWP staffer Velile Gela.
East London advocate Vuyani Msikinya is assisting them pro bono (free of charge), and they filed the claim this month.
According to their joint summons, seen by the Dispatch, the former employees are owed R11,500 each, or a combined R495,360 for work done between March and October 2011.
Most of them worked in the refuse collection section of the metro.
In the court papers, Gela claims that the programme was introduced in BCM in 2009 “as part of a poverty alleviation programme”.
He said the programme offered those involved an opportunity to work two or three days a week or eight days a month, at a rate of R15 per hour or R180 per day.
Gela said between March and October 2011, the 43 worked a total of 96 hours each without being paid.
He said each worker was owed R11,520 plus interest, and that over the years they had been sent from pillar to post by metro authorities when they inquired about their payments.
Gela said the conditions under which they were contracted dictated that they worked for two days a week, paid by the CWP, and a further three days a week for free as volunteers, with a promise that they would be employed permanently when vacancies arose.
He said in October 2011, they realised that some of them were getting injured on duty, “sometimes falling off refuse removal trucks as there were no safety measures in our workplaces and there was no compensation”.
He said when they complained, authorities merely said they could resign from the CWP if they were unhappy with the conditions.
“As a result we stopped volunteering for the three days a week, but continued to work the two days a week shifts for CWP as agreed,” it is stated in the court papers.
“Having exhausted all avenues available up to April 2018, we therefore decided to approach this honourable court for relief,” it is stated.
A number of supporting affidavits from affected workers are part of the file, with Msikinya on Monday saying they were now waiting for the metro to file a responding affidavit and notify the court as to whether they would defend the matter or not.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said on Friday the metro was yet to be served with the summons.
“The municipality has, at this stage, no record of court documents being served to BCM in this regard.