Parking marshals, unpaid for months, march on government

They handed over a petition demanding that the Premier’s office investigate the tender and labour practices at Street Parking Solutions (SPS), the company contracted by the City of Cape Town to manage parking payments.

The marshals say that most of them have not been formally dismissed since going on strike over alleged contractual breaches by their employer in October. Though many of their posts have been filled by replacement workers, they still consider themselves to be in the employ of SPS.

The workers claim that SPS broke an employment contract signed in 2009. They claim they are each owed 23.5% of their earnings for the company for each day that they reached their daily income targets. These targets amount to about R500,000 a week for the company as a whole.

Instead, the marshals claim, they were only allowed to keep what income they brought in over and above their daily targets - “tips” essentially. On days that they did not make their targets, they were apparently forced to pay out of their own pockets to make up the shortfall.

The group claims that most of them were locked out in October, but never formally dismissed and they consider themselves to still be employees of City contractor SPS.

“It is four years worth of money that we have been swindled out of,” explains Ibaya Kasai, a marshal and organiser of the strike. He has been without work or income since being locked out in October last year.

“We want our money. We want our jobs back under proper conditions - including basic pay. And, we want the City to terminate its contract with SPS, because they exploit workers in the worst way.”

The Premier’s office acknowledged receipt of the petition, but informed the marshals’ spokeswoman and legal representative NaNandi Simone that it would be referred to Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille. Parking management contracts are competencies of local government.

Simone objected, saying that her engagements on the issue with Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, had been fruitless.

Herron however gave a comprehensive response to queries from GroundUp yesterday. He said that grievances about the payment system did not fall within the City’s “scope of adjudication” and advised the marshals to approach the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

“The contracts for managed parking will be going out for tender again soon and will include provisions that make payment structures for marshalls transparent at the outset,” he said.

“This is intended to provide some measure of protection to marshalls who are currently not represented by any employee union. Marshalls are encouraged to become an organised sector of the labour market and to take advantage of the protections offered by union membership. “It must be stressed, however, that the Department of Labour has found SPS’s payment structures to be lawful.”