UNTU, the Trade Union representing most of Prasa’s train drivers and support crews, has sent the following message to its train crew members:
‘If you refuse to go on duty because the train you are expected to staff lacks Prasa’s promised security back-up, and there is sufficient proof that Prasa is refusing you a safe working environment – UNTU will back you to the hilt.’
“We sent out that message of support because our train crew members are working in a state of constant fear following the recent attacks on train drivers in the Pretoria area,” says UNTU general secretary, Steve Harris.
“On Monday 21 December 2015 one of our driver members was attacked near Akasiaboom Station because his train was prevented from entering the station as another train was parked there—a problem over which he had no control.
“His assailants pointed a pistol at his face and pulled the trigger. When the gun failed to go off they pistol-whipped him causing serious facial injuries.
“There was a second attack on a train driver in the Wintness Station on Christmas Eve, the details of which are not yet fully clear.
“Workers have an internationally recognised right to work in a safe working environment.
Prasa is not giving its train crews the protection they have been promised. Worse still, it is not attempting to do so with any urgency, pleading budgetary constraints.
“Mealy-mouthed managerial assurances to debate the problem next year are no use to employees whose lives are under threat daily.
“Prasa’s budgetary excuses are arrant nonsense. The company plainly does not care sufficiently for its people to give them the security support they need, and which they have promised them.
Prasa could find R38-billion for locomotives that don’t fit its system, why then not the few hundred rands required to equip its trains with the security personnel it has promised?
“Would a company that cared about its employees expect those staff members who have been traumatised to return to duty the next shift as though nothing had happened?”
Steve Harris says that commuters also have a responsibility to ensure that the criminals threatening train crews are apprehended. “The few crooks being allowed to roam free could disrupt travel for millions,” he cautions.
“Rail workers are your friends, not your enemies. The faults causing rail hold-ups are not of their making. The train crews do their best to get you to and from your destinations as quickly and efficiently as possible. Like you, they, too, deserve to be able to travel safely and enjoy a safe working environment.”
Prasa has two possible options and that is to ensure a safe working environment to its employees or alternatively, which unforntunaytle will be detrimental to the commutors is to withdraw the train service for that particular area.
For further detail contact:
SA Harris – General Secretary UNTU
Cell: 082 566 5516
