13 March 2018 | Volume 77 | Edition 1
Big Chef workers await re-hiring
Workers momentarily displaced by the closing of shops owned by Big Chef hope to be insourced by UCT.
By Briana Trujillo s of January 1, UCT chose not to renew a lease with eleven food outlets owned by Big Chef, following allegations of victimisation of workers and boycotts on behalf of the union and student groups. More than 30 workers formerly employed at locations such as Java Junction and Quencha are now out of work, hoping to be insourced under the university’s own UCT Food Services PTY (LTD) and be back at work by the first week of April, according to the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) UCT Chairperson Mzomhle Bixa. But in the meantime, they struggle to get by. “I’m actually struggling on a daily basis. Especially in the environment that we’re living in, poverty, gangsterism and violence, for me it’s too much,” says Ameerah Penshaw, a worker previously employed at Ideas Cafe. Penshaw, a Big Chef employee for six years and a resident of Tafelsig in Mitchells Plain, says she does not remember the last time she went grocery shopping. After UCT decided to end their contract with Big Chef, employees had the option of working for Big Chef owned outlets on campuses in Stellenbosch and the Western
Confusion was visible in some of the seated students who were not aware of the workers’ protest
Cape until further notice. Due to the victimisation, Penshaw refused to work under Big Chef’s owner, Wayne Tzemis. Another worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said she could not accept work in the other locations because no transportation option suited her. Though both women remain hopeful, they worry that the decision to decline alternative employment will work against them during the re-hiring process. Bixa says that other workers have complained that there is no space at these other campuses, and that their employment in these new locations is basically meaningless. Some members of the Big Chef team deny reports of victimisation, further blaming UCT for intimidation and disputes over wages. “We as the Big Chef management tried to negotiate with the University on various occasions so that we could provide better services to our staff, give them some kinds of benefits. But the University never wanted to help us in that stance,” said Sadieka Salie, one of the immediate managers for the now-closed locations. Salie was also a 10 percent shareholder in the central
Image by Aaliyah Ahmed
kitchen on campus through Big Chef’s BBBEE programme. Though employed permanently in Stellenbosch since 2015, following anxiety attacks after the boycotts, she says the loss of her shares meant that one of her five daughters had to switch schools because she could not afford to pay the fees. On the subject of the future of the workers’ employment, Salie says she hopes the university will successfully
“We have to force ourselves to come to work on weekends even though we are not getting paid as feeding our families is more important than our dignities.”
insource them. “It’s not a nice feeling if you also work at the university and give your best every time, but at the end of the day you go home with so little. You can’t even really feed your family with that little,” she says. But for now, until March 7, the workers are playing a waiting game, hoping their victory in organising against their employers won’t leave them permanently jobless. “I always used to say that
I’m going to fight this thing until the end. I knew what the consequences were going to be, we are not going to be able to work,” Penshaw says. But still she persisted. Furthermore, on the issue of Tzemis, she comments, “I was going to make sure that he is not going to be able to have a company at UCT anymore for all the victimisation that was going on. He didn’t deserve to stay on at UCT.”