A wage dispute between the employees and the management of McKaiser’s Old Age Home in Currie Street left the elderly residents at the home hungry for hours last Friday.
Nine employees, who are tasked with bathing and preparing food for the elderly, downed tools for seven hours, complaining that the home’s management is ignoring their request for increases.
A wage dispute between the employees and the management of McKaiser’s Old Age Home in Currie Street left the elderly residents at the home hungry for hours last Friday.
Nine employees, who are tasked with bathing and preparing food for the elderly, downed tools for seven hours, complaining that the home’s management is ignoring their request for increases.
When Grocott’s Mail visited McKaiser’s at around 11am the employees were seated in the kitchen with placards waiting for the home’s management to address them.
The employees’ shop steward, Monica Goba said: “The reason why we have downed tools is that for four years we have not recieved a raise.
The management keeps postponing meetings, we need them to meet with us so that we can at least reach a common ground. We do feel for the elderly people but what can we do? They never want to meet with us.
They are forever postponing meetings.” Goba said they are paid between R1 100 and R1 500 per month. “There is no nurse to give the elderly their medication, we have to do that even though we are not trained for such tasks,” she said.
When reached for comment McKaiser’s chairperson, Glenn Thomas said the management was in negotiations with the employees.
“We are going to have a meeting on Wednesday to hear their grievances. The strike was illegal because they did not ask for permission to strike.
It was also illegal in the sense that you cannot neglect elderly people like that.” He said the management was looking at measures of preventing the same sitaution from re-occurring.
“We can’t afford to pay huge salaries at the moment, we are a non-profit organisation. That unfortunately puts us in an awkward position,” said Thomas. The home’s management and workers will meet again tomorrow to discuss the workers’ complaints.
