No retrenchments on the table at Enterprise's Polokwane factory: union

09 March 2018 - 17:29 By Penwell Dlamini
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Customers queue to return meat to the Enterprise factory store in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, on March 5 2018.
Customers queue to return meat to the Enterprise factory store in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, on March 5 2018.
Image: Alaister Russell/The Sunday Times

There has been no talk of retrenchments at Enterprise Foods’ factory in Polokwane‚ which was shut down because of the presence of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

Success Mataitsane‚ the general secretary of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW)‚ said employees returned to work on Friday.

Management instructed workers to stay away from March 6 because the production of polony had to be stopped after Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that the bacterium had been traced to the factory.

“The workers are back at work as per agreement we had with employers on Monday. Thus far‚ nothing relating to retrenchments has been discussed. They are back at work. They are not producing any polony. They are just doing mop-ups‚ cleaning‚” Mataitsane said.

NUPSAW is the majority union at Enterprise Foods in Polokwane‚ Limpopo. The plant employs about 450 people of which about 400 are union members

Tiger Brands closed the Enterprise Foods factories in Polokwane and Germiston after the Listeria monocytogenes ST6 (LST6) strain was found in its Polokwane plant‚ the source of the world’s largest outbreak of listeriosis. Since last year‚ 180 deaths have been recorded.


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