A strike that could affect the feeding of animals and cleaning of enclosures at the Pretoria Zoo is looming after workers deadlocked with management over a dispute on overtime payment.
More than 120 general workers affiliated to the National Trade Union Congress want to be paid overtime for working on weekends‚ something that management have said is not financially feasible as the animal sanctuary operates on a seven-day week environment.
On Wednesday the union was awarded a strike certificate by the CCMA following a deadlock on negotiations.
Union secretary Sophoniah Machaba said their beef was with the agreement management signed with other labour unions in 2009‚ which allowed double pay for Sundays and 1.5% for Saturdays.
“What we want for our members is for them to be paid double on Sunday like other workers‚” he said.
Machaba said they will shut the gates of the zoo from Thursday and no one will be allowed in until their grievances were addressed.
Pretoria Zoo spokesperson Craig Allenby said they were doing everything in their power to avert the strike‚ saying they met with the union leadership on Wednesday morning to explain that the demands were not practical in the zoo environment.
“We work on a seven-day week programme because the zoo operates seven days a week. Workers who work on Sundays are paid double but we cannot extend overtime to Saturday as this will be financially impractical. We are a non-profit organisation‚” he said.
Allenby said they hoped that the union would take this message to its members and get a mandate on how to move forward.
He said there was nothing to worry about at this stage as the union must first meet with their members and get a mandate to embark on a strike.
“If they do get a mandate‚ the union is bound by law to give us 48-hour notice‚” he said.
Allenby said they have a standard contingency plan in place to ensure operations were not affected by such labour actions.
“It would be irresponsible for us not to have such a plan in place‚” he added.