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By Palesa Matlala
- Violet Sibeko, a Pick n Pay worker transferred to Rosebank after the Hyde Park branch closed, fears losing the job she depends on to support her children and build a pension.
- Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth paused retrenchment proceedings affecting more than 22,000 Pick n Pay workers and sent the company and unions back to the negotiating table.
Violet Sibeko has already been through this once. When Pick n Pay closed its Hyde Park store, she was moved to Rosebank and started over. Now the same threat is back, and this time it is bigger.
Sibeko, 49, is one of more than 22,000 Pick n Pay workers whose jobs are at risk after the retailer issued a Section 189 notice on 4 May, starting the formal process that can lead to large-scale retrenchments.
Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth stepped in to pause those proceedings after weeks of talks between the company and unions stalled. Both sides have been sent back to the negotiating table.
But nothing has been settled. The clock is still running.
For Sibeko, the uncertainty cuts deep. She works long hours. Most of what she earns goes to transport, school fees, groceries and stokvel contributions.
“There is nothing left to save at the end of the month,” she said.
She wants to keep working until she is 65, build her pension and retire with something to show for it.
“I still want to put my children through school and university,” she said.
“I also want to renovate my mother’s house that I inherited from my late parents.”
What Pick n Pay is proposing goes beyond job cuts. The company wants to change how workers are hired and paid, including Sunday pay rates and weekend shift arrangements, because it says current conditions cost more than other retailers.
For someone already living month to month, a cut to those conditions could hurt as much as a retrenchment.
Sibeko says customers at Rosebank regularly ask about the Hyde Park closure and worry about what comes next.
So does she.
“I always told myself that I would enjoy the fruits of my labour when I retire,” she said.
The department said talks are at a sensitive stage but there is optimism a solution can be found.
Pictured above: A Pick n Pay store at a shopping mall.
Image source: File
