NEHAWU heads to court to protect members
3 April 2020
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] this afternoon served and filed its court papers on the Minister of Health as first respondent, the Department of Health as the second respondent, the Department of Employment and Labour as the third respondents and the provincial MEC’s of Health as well to force them to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993 during the COVID-19 disaster.
The matter has been set down for Tuesday, 7th April 2020, at 10am at the Labour Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg while trying to find the soonest day as Tuesday is too far. In the meantime, national union will await answering papers from the respondents should they wish to exercise that right and in the event they do answer NEHAWU will reply accordingly. After court the process are complied with then the matter would proceed before the court for determination.
The national union took the unfortunate but necessary decision to take the legal route against the Minister of Health after many unsuccessful attempts to engage him or the department. On numerous occasions, we pleaded for audience with the Minister to alert him to the non-compliance with the OHS Act by his department and the provinces during the fight against COVID-19.
We have a trail of emails, text and Whatsapp messages asking for meetings in order to engage the Minister on dangers faced by our members on a daily basis in healthcare facilities across the country including our offer to assist government in mitigating the risk of infection to our members and workers. Our pleas fell on deaf ears until we decided to send a letter of demand on the 30th March 2020 with an ultimatum that lapsed on the 1st April 2020.