Nedlac says ‘yes’ to strike by all members of Solidarity against the exclusion of white people from employee share ownership plans

30 October 2018

After three months, Nedlac has approved an application by Solidarity to go on a lawful strike against the exclusion of white employees from employee share ownership plans.

In terms of the Nedlac decision, all of Solidarity’s 180 000 members can now embark on legal strike action against the exclusion of race. According to Solidarity Chief Executive Dirk Hermann, this is a historic decision which will put the exclusion of white people under the spotlight.

Solidarity’s application to Nedlac comes on the back of Sasol’s decision to exclude white employees from its Khanyisa share ownership plan.

Solidarity filed the application on 25 July but had to go to the High Court after Nedlac had turned down the application initially.

“We were most frustrated by the way in which this process was drawn out. It seems like it was a shock to the system that white people dared to strike over racial exclusion and unfair discrimination. Nedlac is supposed to facilitate protest; not to frustrate it.

Through strike action like this we want to challenge companies like Sasol that are professing that it is morally correct to totally exclude people and to do so on the basis of race,” Hermann said.

Meanwhile, Solidarity has also embarked on a legal process to ask the Labour Court to give a ruling on whether Sasol’s exclusion of white employees is lawful.

“Following the Nedlac decision we will now revert to our members about a possible strike mandate. A possibility is to let it coincide with the court case. However, we will let our members guide us in this decision,” Hermann said.

Issued by Dirk Hermann, Executive Officer, Solidarity, 30 October 2018