Festive Chicken workers down tools

Résumé détaillé

Demanding a monthly wage of R13 500, medical aid benefits and safer working conditions.

More than 100 people gathered outside Festive Chicken’s Olifantsfontein processing plant on Tuesday, where striking workers have been picketing since 29 October. They are demanding to be paid R13 500, medical aid benefits and safer working conditions.

Workers downed tools following a wage deadlock at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

On 30 October, the Labour Court declared that workers were entitled to take part in the protected strike and barred the company from disciplining or dismissing them for it.

Festive Chicken is part of Astral Foods, one of South Africa’s largest poultry producers, which supplies chicken products to companies that include KFC, Nando’s, Spur and Hungry Lion.

Workers told GroundUp their take-home pay is between R5 400 and R6 500 a month for 45-hour workweeks, while agricultural workers on farms earn about R7 300 for 48-hour workweeks.

ADT private security stands outside the plant to monitor protesters. Image: Seth Thorne/GroundUp

Dikeledi Rosina Mogwenya has worked at Festive Chicken’s hatchery since October 2003. She said while her workload has nearly tripled over two decades, her salary has not.

She said the number of hatchery machines operated by workers per shift has increased from 12 to 35 without a corresponding pay adjustment.

“We count the chicks; each box gets 80. One person must count 35 000 chickens per day. One machine holds 19 000 chickens. One tray holds 132 chicks, and one trolley holds 36 trays,” she said.

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