{"id":551828,"date":"2007-03-22T06:45:53","date_gmt":"2007-03-22T06:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551828-vodacom-spying-on-workers.html"},"modified":"2007-03-22T06:45:53","modified_gmt":"2007-03-22T06:45:53","slug":"vodacom-spying-on-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551828-vodacom-spying-on-workers.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The employee, Portia Sithole was dismissed last Friday after attending a union activity while on a doctor-mandated sick leave. <\/font><\/p>\n

Communication Workers Unions of South Africa (CWU) spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe said Sithole’s dismissal had prompted other workers – who thought it was unjustified – to question whether Vodacom was illegally targeting union activists. <\/font><\/p>\n

The company monitored her location using her mobile telephone. <\/font><\/p>\n

"There was no case against Portia. I don’t understand why we are wasting company resources on these punitive measures," said Aubrey Tshabalala, a CWU office bearer at Vodacom. <\/font><\/p>\n

Tshabalala also faces disciplinary action. <\/font><\/p>\n

"The company offers employees a phone as a company benefit. Now they are using it as a tracking device to see where one goes and when. I think it is a total invasion of privacy," said Sithole. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I don’t believe they do this to all employees on sick leave," said Mfanafuthi. <\/font><\/p>\n

Vodacom said it would not comment on the dismissal. <\/font><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the labour court in Johannesburg has requested more time to consider arguments from Vodacom and striking members, the Communication Workers Unions of south Africa (CWU) said on Wednesday. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Our members are disappointed. They were ready for an action… But this also gives the company more time to come to the table and negotiate than using lawyers as a buffer," said CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe." <\/font><\/p>\n

On March 12, Vodacom obtained an interim court order preventing workers belonging the CWU from striking. <\/font><\/p>\n

At a second hearing on March 19 the court requested more time to consider arguments on both sides before making a final ruling. <\/font><\/p>\n

Mfanafuthi said both Vodacom and the CWU had not objected to the postponement of the ruling until April 16. <\/font><\/p>\n

The industrial action followed an unresolved dispute on the recognition of the CWU by Vodacom. <\/font><\/p>\n

While the union argued for recognition, the company said earlier this month that the union would only be recognised when it had a 30% membership. <\/font><\/p>\n

The 30% membership was previously agreed upon with the union.<\/font><\/p>\n

Comments<\/a><\/p>\n

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A Vodacom worker’s dismissal has raised questions about spying at the company. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}