South Africa: Labour Court Halts Banking Sector Strike

ATM (file photo).
26 September 2019

Cape Town — The Labour Court has interdicted a planned strike by workers in the banking sector, Business Day reports. Reasons for granting the interdict would be made clear in due course, Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker said.

Banking union Sasbo said that the 40,000 workers who were to participate in the planned strike action were prepared to demonstrate against retrenchments in the industry. Over the past two years, announcements of job cuts from Nedbank, Standard Bank and Absa saw thousands of bank workers retrenched, according to Fin24.

The job cuts came as "digital disruption" from banking apps negated the need for bank branches, 104 of which Standard Bank has closed. Former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan, tweeted this week "Banking apps sometimes malfunction but they don't strike"

Business Unity SA, who sought to halt the strike action, said the demonstration would not change the realities affecting the banking sector and would "further burden the economy and deter investment".

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.