As South Africa entered level 4 of the national lockdown this week, some workers have been given an ultimatum by employers to choose between their fear of the Covid-19 coronavirus and their jobs
However, this ultimatum has been met with strong opposition from Cosatu, which has urged workers to refuse to work if the workplace has not followed the set regulations to prevent the spread of the virus.
This comes after some employees were notified that, if they feared returning to work because of Covid-19, they would be replaced. “Every time we tell our boss about our challenges – having to be on public transport and the fear of carrying the virus back to our homes – his response is ‘choose between poverty and the disease’.”
"My fear is that my colleagues will return and there is no way of knowing if they are sick or not. “This company isn’t capable of sanitising this place completely. I fear not going back to work will lead to starvation for my children,” Mulaudzi said. Union federation Saftu in the Western Cape also highlighted the problem of staff being bullied by their employers into working.
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