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Employees forced to strip for a theft inspection routine

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Female employees at a clothing factory in Durban are enraged since the company introduced a routine theft inspection rule which includes a strip search.

The SABC has an exclusive video clip that shows a group of women being searched and told to undress in front of others.

KwaZulu-Natal Department of Labour Spokesperson Lungelo Mkamba has condemned such practices as unlawful and inhumane.

Mkamba says the department is conducting its own inspection, and will take the matter to the Human Rights Commission.

“It is totally unacceptable and inhumane what the employer is doing to these female employees. It is a gross violation and infringement of their human rights and it’s degrading to the workers’ dignity. As a department, we strongly condemn this nefarious searchers in the strongest possible terms. The actions that we will be taking is that, as the department, we will be engaging with human rights commission to investigate the matter. Equally, we also encourage the workers to take this matter to the CCMA for sexual harassment in the workplace. As the Department of Labour, we will also be conducting an inspection on the premises of the employer in terms of the basic conditions of employment act.”

Mkamba has urged dismissed and current workers at the factory in Durban to open criminal cases against the employer. He says the departmental inspectors will serve notices on the factory in Sydney road this week.

“If the employer is found not to be complying with our labour laws we are going to serve them with notices and if he ignores those notices we will be prosecuting him at a labour court equally. We also want to encourage these workers to open a case of crimen injuria at the police station. So, police will investigate whether the employer has unlawfully and intentionally impaired the dignity and privacy of those workers, but also we want to encourage these workers to report such practices even anonymously as soon as they happen, so we can assist them urgently.”

 

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