Black employees at a North West farming equipment manufacturing factory are allowed only a minute in the toilet and no tea and smoke breaks.
These were some of the grievances of more than 100 workers of Agrico in Lichtenburg who protested yesterday, saying these rules did not apply to their white colleagues. But the company says the measures are not racist and are meant to improve productivity.
The employees said the company has a biometric system with a timer that monitors how much time each person spent in the loo when nature called.
One of the protesters, Israel Khuduga, said the time they were allowed to spend in the toilet was not enough.
"Nature does not have colour, one minute is not enough," he said.
The factory workers said that if they spent longer than a minute, a manager would come in to get them as they were told they were delaying production.
Another worker, Albert Tshabadira, said he was just working in order to provide for his family but the conditions were not favourable. "It is not nice, we are always scared and work under severe pressure."
They were also not allowed to use their cellphones during working hours. They downed tools on Friday, demanding better working conditions.
One minute toilet break: Employees down tools over working conditions
Image: Tiro Ramatlhatse/Sowetan
Black employees at a North West farming equipment manufacturing factory are allowed only a minute in the toilet and no tea and smoke breaks.
These were some of the grievances of more than 100 workers of Agrico in Lichtenburg who protested yesterday, saying these rules did not apply to their white colleagues. But the company says the measures are not racist and are meant to improve productivity.
The employees said the company has a biometric system with a timer that monitors how much time each person spent in the loo when nature called.
One of the protesters, Israel Khuduga, said the time they were allowed to spend in the toilet was not enough.
"Nature does not have colour, one minute is not enough," he said.
The factory workers said that if they spent longer than a minute, a manager would come in to get them as they were told they were delaying production.
Another worker, Albert Tshabadira, said he was just working in order to provide for his family but the conditions were not favourable. "It is not nice, we are always scared and work under severe pressure."
They were also not allowed to use their cellphones during working hours. They downed tools on Friday, demanding better working conditions.
We are moving ahead with national minimum wage: Ramaphosa
These South Africans work a six-day work week‚ 8-12 hours per day
They also claimed that due to the pressure they were put under, some of their colleagues had died and others had lost fingers on duty while operating the machines.
A third protester, Steven Molebatsi, said he lost two fingers and was never compensated. "They shouted at me and said I must work fast, the machine cut off my fingers, they never paid me for that."
The workers said they felt oppressed because whites were allowed to take as long as they wanted in the toilet, and to have smoke and tea breaks as they wished.
Agrico's technical director Ronald Andrug said they did not want to be mean to their employees but had to put strict measures in place after they noticed people were spending hours in the loo.
"We installed a clock reader to check on whether everyone had been honest, it's not that we are being mean. We are not been unreasonable about it."
Andrug said the company decided on the clock reader five years ago after they discovered that an employee had spent almost 40 hours per month in the toilet.
He said company policy did not allow workers to smoke but they could do it during lunch time.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most read
Latest Videos