COCA COLA FIFA WORLD CUP EXPLOITATION The Reality of being Coloured and Black in the Work Place in the new SA Good day, This is my story. I have been working for a company called Eurocom in Rosebank Johannesburg for 1 year and 7 months and through my stay there I have been appalled at the blatant rascism and unfair labour practices being meted out to the black and coloured employees of the company. The Company won a contract with Coca Cola to run their Fifa Adopt A Nation World Cup Competition here in South Africa. Before the start of this years World Cup I was approached by management to compile a work time sheet for all the staff members who would be working on this campaign. Management of the company requested that I change a 40 hour 5 day work week to a 40 hour 7 day work week. I reluctantly worked out the time sheet for myself and 3 black ladies who were to report to me. I went home that day and was extremely conflicted regarding what I saw as a blatant attempt by the company to use some clever engineering to avoid paying overtime to the lower income workers of the company. The next day I approached management and I objected to their proposed work hours schedule change and I told them that it was morally wrong for them to do something like this. Management did not consult with the workers before deciding on the change of working hours and they did not consult the workers with wanting them to work over weekends and public holidays for the duration of the World Cup which was from 1 May 2014 up until 15 July 2014. My direct supervisor (Rose Mullan) who is the client service director was fuming in the meeting I had with management and she made extremely upsetting comments during the meeting I had with them. She said things like who are you to tell us that we cannot implement a change in the working hours and am I representing them now. I asked her what she met by saying them. She could not answer me. In the meeting she told the CEO not to listen to me as he was playing into my games and I got extremely offended by this comment because it demonstrated to me that they discussed this change of working hours and completely disregarded the opinions of the black staff members of the company. She gave me the impression that we are slaves and we are desperate and they will force us to work under their conditions. Ms Rose Mullan have been making a lot of racial comments in the office prior to our meeting and I would cringe at the comments she would make regarding one of our clients in particular. Our clients name is Chantal Hajee who works for Media 24 and she is a coloured lady. Media 24 is a client of Eurocom and Chantal was the contact lady on behalf of Madia 24. Whenever Chantal would make a request for assistance the same as all our white clients would do, Rose Mullan would shout in the office that Chantal Hajee is a stupid idiot because she is Coloured. I would cringe at this blatant rascist remark and on a few times I would catch Rose making these comments out of anger. Another incident happened when she advised that one of our Coca Cola prize winners from Mitchells plain was also a stupid Idiot because he was Coloured. On another occasion she told the black female staff members that the office which they occupied smelt like a strip club or something to that effect. I got offended because she demonstrated her rascist attitude and tendencies because I know for a fact that she would never say the same to any white person at the Company. I raised this blatant rascism by Rose Mullan with the companys CEO Marco Broccardo and i submitted an official grievance against Rose Mullan for her racial attitude and tendancies. What led me to the conclusion that she is rascist was because of her attitude during our meeting regarding the proposed overtime change. This deeply disturbed me because after our meeting regarding the change in working hours and the companys refusal to pay overtime Rose was clearly on a mission to make my life miserable at Eurocom. I logged a grievance with the company regarding Roses rascism towards me and our clients with the CEO and he delayed taking the grievance forward. He sat on the case for one month and did nothing to take the matter forward. Instead he approached me regularly to persuade me to drop the grievance procedure and I told him that even if I drop this grievance she is going to come after me to get me out of the company. She sees me as a stupid idiot after all because I am coloured. The Coca Cola FIFA World Cup Campaign started on 1 May 2014 and I was at work making sure the campaign started of without any glitches. I worked on 1 May and 7 May which was workers day and voting day respectively with no complaints obviously with a view to impress the bosses so that I will get rewarded for my hard work and dedication. For the duration of the competition I worked all public holidays and weekends. I was putting in 12 hour working days over the 3 month period of the Coca Cola campaign with no overtime or thank you from the Company. I approached the CEO again and I told him about the fact that the white employees of the Company are allowed to come to work any time of the day and leave any time of the day while the black employees are required to be early at work have no lunch break and were putting in more hours to ensure the service level agreement of the Coke campaign was met. The CEO did not take kindly to my comments and after a few days the white employees would walk pass me and make sarcastic comments of Eurocom having a union these days. I saw this as a slight and a clear indication that the white employees were not happy with the fact that I was challenging their culture of white privaledge in the Company. I raised the issue of paying overtime for us workers who put in extra time to meet the obligations of the coke contract and the CEO dismissed the request telling me that if the staff were not happy they should leave because there are millions of people out there who are desperate for work. I then told him that it is the wrong view to have because to me it came across as him saying that there are millions of poor black people out there which he can exploit and pay slave wages to. During the duration of the contract my basic salary amounted to R5000 per month even though I was the campaign manager of the Coca Cola Fifa Adopt A Nation Competition Contract here in SA. This was a countrywide contract which amounted to millions of rands being paid over to the Company for the duration of the World Cup which was held in Brazil during June and July. I literally sweat blood and tears from 1 May 2014 up until the end of July to make sure that this contract was a success for the company. I put in a minimum of 12 working hours everyday and I worked every weekend for the duration of the contract with the false belief that my sacrifice effort and hard work will be rewarded eventually. I want to say to South Africans out there especially the likes of John Robbie from 702 radio that in most cases it is a myth where hard work, dedication and effort gets rewarded because white employers in this country are of the view that they are doing black and coloured workers a favour by employing them I decided to withdraw the rascism complaint in the spirit of reconciliation and I told the CEO I hope there will not be any repercussions. The CEO then called a staff meeting and advised that in light of the recent developments at the company new contracts would be issued to all the staff members and if staff were not happy they should approach Jerome who is now the Union representative. This was done arrogantly and in a completely disrespectful manner. During July we received the new contracts and in the contract it was stated that the company would not pay over time even though workers would be expected to work overtime anytime the company would request them to. I felt that this contract which was given to me was a direct response to my objection to their refusal to pay overtime. The contract also stated that the company will not be making any salary increases for the foreseeable future. I send the CEO an email advising him that this to me looks like constructive dismissal because they knew I would never accept any of the conditions as stated in the contract. I refused to sign the contract and I decided not to go back to work. I logged a grievance against the company for unfair labour practices and subsequent to that the company has sent me a notice of a disciplinary hearing against me for failure to report for work. I attended my disciplinary hearing and the company had their lawyer at the hearing. I brought my own representative and the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing refused to allow my representative to sit in and represent me. This to me was another indication that the company was trying to bully me and I saw the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing as biased and that the decision to get rid of me was taken in April 2014. The disciplinary hearing took place in September. At the disciplinary hearing Eurocoms lawyer requested to have a meeting with me before the disciplinary hearing started and at this meeting he offered me first R22000 then R40000 for me to terminate my employment with Eurocom. I refused these offers and the lawyer then called Marco Briccardo the CEO of the company and he offered me R60000 to go away quietly. What stood out for me was the fact that they kept on emphasizing that I do not say anything about the Company. This was as a result of a twitter comment I made to the Redi Tlhabi show on 702 regarding the fact that white Employers expect black and Coloured workers to work for slave wages. I told the company that this disciplinary hearing I am facing was always going to happen the moment I objected to the proposed work schedule change. I knew in April already that the company is going to try and get rid of me because I challenged their culture of white privilege. I advised them that what I had to say regarding to what happened during my work experience was fair comment and I am entitled to talk about my experience. My disciplinary hearing was as a result of my refusal to go to work until my grievance was sorted out. My grievance submitted against the company for unfair labour practice was submitted prior to the disciplinary notice they sent me. I advised Eurocoms lawyer that I will go away quietly if Eurocom pay me 2 years salary as a settlement. When I made the remarks on Redi Thlabis show I was completely gutted and did not think about money I just felt that it was just immoral to treat their workers of colour with such disrespect and contempt. I saw their attempt to buy me off as one of their bullying tactics which they regularly employed against black staff members whom they know are desperate for work and whom they can exploit. I refused to take part in their disciplinary hearing process against me and have subsequently been dismissed. This type of thing which happened to me at Eurocom is called constructive dismissal and the arrogance of Eurocom is shocking to say the least. I have emails interacting with the CEO regarding all I have mentioned from April until September. There is a clear timeline of events. The CEO had another set of lawyers send me letters of demand to not defame the Company. Up until today I never mentioned the companys name or defamed them in any way. Eurocom threatened to interdict me and sue me for damages if I share my story. They tried to bully me again by threatening me with their lawyers. I am horrified because I worked in corporate South Africa for many years and it never had to encounter anything like this. I can just imagine the millions of black and Coloured workers who are expired like this here in SA while the white bosses go home with R50000 R35000 and R85000. I can relate to my black and coloured brothers and sisters who have to go through this indignity and from today we are going to expose them. We will give a voice to the voiceless out there in the workplaces who are subjected to this despicable behavior by white employers. Reflecting now on my stay there at Eurocom I realize that they see nothing wrong with how they treat their black workers. They told all the black workers last year that no one in the company got salary increases yet when I asked one of the white workers whether he got an increase he confirmed yes he did get an increase. Eurocom saw nothing wrong with the fact that Discovery Health Medical Aid consultants would visit the company and only speak to the white staff members. Eurocom saw nothing wrong with the fact that Financial Planners would visit Eurocom and only speak to the white staff members. I spoked to the CEO on numerous occasions regarding a retirement fund scheme and medical aid scheme for the workers knowing that the black staff members were vulnerable here and he just shot me down, instead he intimated that South Africa would be a failed state within 10 years and he does not see the need to have a pension scheme for his workers. However the white staff members in the company earn enough to pay for medical aid and towards their retirement funds. During the duration of the Coca Cola contract I was used, abused and exploited and my hard work has led to Coke awarding another contract to the Company. My hard work resulted in Eurocom winning another coca cola contract. Im really hurt and disappointed because I suspect this kind of behaviour is more widespread in the work place for black and coloured workers. The white staff members at Eurocom earn on average from between 5 and 10 times more than the black workers and I feel this is just wrong. When are white employers going to realize that they are not doing black and coloured workers favours by employing them. This is South Africa and the resources of Africa belongs to Africans but in this day and age white employers refuse to share in the wealth of this country. How will we reconcile when this type of behavior is allowed to be played out in work places across SA with no repercussions for the exploitative nature of white employers. Please share my story and lets expose these greedy elements within our society who through their bigotry are a major threat to the security of our country. We are standing at a precipice and it is reflected through the violent strikes we are having in SA recently. We must work together to stop this behavior otherwise workers are going to revolt and we run the risk of this country falling into anarchy. Your faithfully Jerome Lott
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 12:58:17 +0000
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