Home

Parly’s protection services employees head to court

Chaos in Parliament.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

A group of 70 Protection Services employees say they will appeal their discrimination case which they lost against Parliament in the Labour Court recently.

They say they are willing to go up to the Constitution Court. The protection service employees had argued that the new chamber officers being dubbed ‘bouncers’ are earning higher salaries than them.

They want equal pay for equal work. In its papers, Parliament argued that the so-called bouncers – all former police officers – were specifically recruited to deal with high intensity security situations. Michael Bagraim, a Democratic Alliance MP and lawyer representing the 70 protection services employees, says they lost the case on certain technical grounds outlined in the employment equity legislation.

“And what it is, it’s very technical and they have said that there might be discrimination,- that’s not the problem. They are saying that it doesn’t fall within the specified grounds as contained in the legislation. We are saying the legislation is also saying, – any arbitrary grounds. Now what’s happened here is that a group of men that have got  longer service, they are better qualified and they are earning less than their new colleagues that have come in,-  bouncers that have come in to Parliament. And we think that’s particularly unfair. The real problem is that they don’t seem to fit into a schedule as outlined by the legislation. That being the case, – then we need to go to higher courts, the labour appeals courts and even the constitutional court to show that the discrimination is particularly unfair.”

Author

MOST READ