Solidarity's court case on racial exclusion against SANBS begins

Trade union Solidarity today filed court documents at the Labour Court in Johannesburg in which the court is requested to prevent the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) from imposing an absolute ban on certain racial groups' applications for vacancies. Solidarity is representing two of its members who were prevented from applying for posts on account of their skin colour.

Dirk Groenewald, head of Solidarity's Labour Court division, said the trade union is representing Theodore Reyneke and Sanet Schönfeldt who have worked for the SANBS for 27 and 23 years respectively. ‘The blood service embarked on a space-creation strategy in July this year and offered severance packages for white employees above the age of 55, thereby creating 14 vacancies. The vacancies were subsequently advertised and it was stipulated in the advertisement that only black people could apply for the posts in question. Solidarity has requested the court to concede that Reyneke and Schönfeldt were unfairly discriminated against on the basis of race and that the blood service should be prevented from applying similar practices in the future.'

Groenewald said the principle according to which people are prohibited from applying for posts if they are not a specific race must be tested in court. ‘If we succeed in creating a precedent through this case, it will apply to all companies that follow this practice. This practice amounts to a quota system, which the Employment Equity Act does not allow. An absolute restriction may not be placed on the promotion of white people.'

In September this year Solidarity applied for an urgent interdict to prevent the SANBS from proceeding to fill posts while the court case was in progress. However, the Labour Court ruled that the case was not one of urgency and turned down the application.

The legal action comes after the trade union's campaign against Woolworths who advertised posts that were only open to black Africans. Following the campaign, employees of the SANBS contacted Solidarity, as the blood service had also advertised posts that were only open to black South Africans.

Statement issued by Dirk Groenewald, Head: Labour Court division, Solidarity, December 11 2012

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