Cape Town - A number of Fidelity ADT employees have downed tools over alleged pay discrepancies for employees performing the same functions.
The members have been picketing at the company's N1 City offices, demanding that the basic salary gap be reduced for those performing the same work and in the same positions.
ADT was acquired by Fidelity Services Group in 2017, forming Fidelity ADT, in an effort to boost the company's armed response and security technology offering. Services provided by Fidelity ADT now include fire, cleaning and security services.
Armed response officer Siyabonga Palaza said a 48-hour strike notice was handed over by the union to the company on August 3, and the strike commenced on August 5.
“We are two groups. The first group was employed by ADT which was the previous company. So there is an ADT formation group (and) there is a Fidelity ADT formation group. They are performing the same duties but their salaries are different. There is a more than 50% gap.
“The ADT formation, their basic salary is R14 200, the Fidelity ADT group formation, their basic salary is R7 400. So there is a big difference. It's more than 50%, it's totally unjust,” Palaza said.
“We are not saying we are demanding equalisation as the company proclaims, we are demanding the closure of the gap, at least it must not be above 50%.”
Palaza said members of the Democratised Transport Logistics and the Allied Workers’ Union (Detawu) had been mandated to participate in the strike, but picketing rules allowed for anybody to participate in solidarity with the affected employees.
He said an estimated 100 members were affected but this could not be independently verified; and added that the strike would continue until the company decided to meet at the bargaining table.
Mthunzi Nonyongo who has been working for the company for about two years as an armed response officer, said: “Since I started, we were informed.... They informed us but since we are starving, we took that offer, the amount that they offered us because at that time we were looking for work. We didn't have an alternative. Now, we feel undermined by our colleagues. We’ve got the same qualifications, we are doing the same work and then they don't treat us equally.”
“This is a big company, if they can just give us what we are looking for and do what is right, we will be happy to perform our duties in the right way.”
In a statement, the Fidelity Services Group said a small number of security officers in the Western Cape, affiliated with DETAWU, had served the company with a notice to strike effective from August 5. It added that the industrial action was limited to the Western Cape only.
In the statement, Wahl Bartmann, the Group CEO of the Fidelity Services Group said: “The union represents a small portion of our security officers in the Western Cape. We have placed full contingency measures in place to ensure that our operations and service to our customers continue uninterrupted.”
He said the company would, “continue engaging with the union on issues which relate to a wage dispute and which dispute falls under the jurisdiction of the Bargaining Council for the Private Security Sector and is ongoing”.
“We remain fully committed to finding a resolution to the dispute.”
Hwever on Tuesday, the workers said the company had refused to meet with them, except on one occasion.
When asked whether the company could confirm that basic salaries had a 50% discrepancy in some cases for the same work and positions, Fidelity Services Group Head of Marketing & Communications Charnel Hattingh, said all information regarding remuneration was considered confidential and privileged information, and therefore could not be disclosed.