A group of employees contracted under various third party companies have accused the Toyota Parts Centre on Atlas Road, East Rand, of discrimination, nepotism and exploitation.
“The Star” spoke to three employees who have levelled allegations of using labour brokers, discrimination and exploitation against the company, saying the company management uses exploitative ways in their dealings with them.
“There is a lot of exploitation, nepotism, corruption at the Toyota Atlas Road plant. There are people who are trained by Toyota, but instead of Toyota employing us directly, they use labour brokers.
“We have tried to get help from Numsa, but nothing has worked. Numsa outlawed the use of labour brokers but the company still finds a way to hide this from the unions. They do this so that they can continue paying their friends who run these third party companies.
“Another problem is that the company pays for transport but that money is paid to Barloworld/Nebula. A transport allowance is paid to Nebula by management; that allowance does not get to us as employees.
“The transport is only accessed by permanent workers and not contractors even though we are all in need of transport, especially when doing overtime or at night,” the employee said.
Another employee accused the company of refusing workers access to an in-house clinic or the company canteen.
“The company has an in-house clinic, which remains inaccessible to contract workers there. There is also a canteen, but we as contractors are charged the full price of R44 for a plate while permanent workers pay only R16 for the same plate of food.
“We also do not get any incentives when we have performed well as contract workers even though this is supposed to be a benefit for everyone, regardless of whether you are a contract worker or a permanent employee. We do not see any of these incentives as contract workers.
“There are times when there is no water and Toyota only gives water to permanent workers and not to us. This has happened during the period when the municipality was conducting work on their infrastructure, how do they expect us to work without access to water,” said the employee.
“Sometimes we are forced to go distances to get food and water and this impacts on our time. This is even worse when it is a weekend as there are no hawkers to buy food. We end up being late as a result,” the worker said.
Another employee, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that due to the use of labour brokers, they have not been paid any bonuses and incentives.
“There has been a lot of changes since 2015. We are all workers, working for Toyota, but at the end of the month, our salaries come from a labour broker. We were supposed to be absorbed inside Toyota.
“Now we are working without the benefit of a provident fund, bonuses and incentives even though we are the last line of defence,” the worker said.
Responding to “The Star”, group managing director, Jacques Kruger for Nebula Logistics, said as a service provider his organisation has a contract in place with Toyota South Africa.
“We, Nebula Logistics Africa Proprietary Limited (“Nebula”), have a contract in place with Toyota South Africa Proprietary Limited (“Toyota”) to render logistics services on their site.
“We are one of various logistics service providers (“LSPs”) contracted by Toyota to render these services on their site. Over and above the LSPs, Toyota also has its own employees working on the site.
“No transport allowance is deducted from the salaries of Nebula employees ... The Toyota in-house clinic is a benefit provided by Toyota to their employees on site. It is accessible to Nebula and other contractors on the site in the case of emergencies.
“The canteen is a service provided by Toyota and subsidised for Toyota employees. All contractors (which include Nebula) have access to the canteen but pay the unsubsidised price,” he said.
The Star