MBOMBELA stadium will not meet its April completion deadline after construction firm Basil Read dismissed about 400 workers following an illegal strike.

Mbombela, in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, is one of the stadiums under construction for next year’s World Cup.

Eugene du Toit, spokesman for Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture, said yesterday progress was derailed by illegal strikes throughout the construction period.

The strike at Mbombela had entered its third week, and according to Du Toit, workers were “demanding a R70 000 bonus fee each because the project was nearing completion”.

Du Toit said: “The construction process has been hit by unprotected strikes, most of which were over wages and the land deal facilitated by the municipality.”

He said the first illegal strike was in December 2007 and it was agreed that any illegal industrial action would result in dismissals. “They participated in another illegal strike last year June over bonus payments and we dismissed them.

“We later reinstated them under another agreement that they will never engage in an illegal strike.”

Du Toit emphasised that no worker will be reinstated this time. “None of the striking workers will be reinstated or will have anything to do on site.”

Asked when the stadium will be ready, Du Toit said: “November 2009 sounds [like] a realistic time for completion.” Mmatsatsi Marobe, chief executive of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, said: “People should manage their labour relations better; we have the world watching us and we can’t afford any more delays.”

She said completion in November was still “fine” because there would still be about six months before South Africa staged the event.

Lesiba Seshoka, National Union of Mineworkers spokesman, which also represents workers in the construction industry, said the company should be careful when dealing with this issue.

“The NUM condemns this illegal strike, but the company also needs to continuously engage its workers.” He added that a “big problem” would arise if the company employed labour from outside the community to replace the fired workers.

A two-week long strike by the National Union of Mineworkers at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo, has ended, the NUM announced on Tuesday.

"Parties have agreed that workers will get their R3000 bonuses in two parts. Firstly R1000 on the eighth [August 8] and then again R2000 in December," NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said in a statement.

"Parties also agreed that those who leave the contract before the end of the term either due to retrenchment or lapse of their contracts will also receive their full bonus," he said.

The construction consortium WBHO originally gave workers until Monday to return to work or face dismissal, maintaining that the strike was illegal.

However, the NUM asked that this deadline be extended to Tuesday.

Workers were upset at a decision by WBHO management to pay their bonuses for December this year only on completion of the stadium in November next year.

The stadium will be one of those which will host Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup matches.

No agreement was reached between 500 dismissed workers at the Mbombela stadium and the Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture (Basil Read/Bouygues Civil Works) in Nelspruit on Friday.

On Thursday it was reported that the workers and management were on the verge of a settlement.

Spokesman for MSJV Eugene du Toit said negotiations closed on Friday afternoon and talks would resume next week.

"We have settled on most situations except on the issue of the shop stewards. "We want to take disciplinary action against shop stewards who played major roles in the illegal strike due to the vandalism and losses incurred," he said.

Du Toit said this would be in terms of labour laws and they would not budge on the issue.

The National Union Of Mineworkers (NUM) said that they were on the verge of a settlement but nothing had been signed.

The 500 were fired for an illegal strike at the Mbombela stadium.

They were demanding nightshift allowances, bonuses and better working conditions.

Spokesman for the workers James Maseko said the protest followed management's refusal to pay them an R800 nightshift allowance.

Unions are seeking a R1500-a-month "project bonus" for all workers at Cape Town's Green Point 2010 stadium site, regardless of whether construction targets are met. They believe the bonus should be paid even if the workers go on strike.

This has emerged from the proceedings of an arbitration hearing held under the auspices of the Building Industry Bargaining Council (BIBC).

In an advisory award handed down this week, arbitrator Jacobus Koopman said the Labour Relations Act "clearly precludes the applicable unions from striking over matters bound by the collective agreement" -including the bonus.

The three-year agreement between unions and employers he referred to, which was reached in the BIBC, covers wages and conditions of service.

Green Point and other 2010 stadia under construction in other provinces have been dogged by strikes.

This week workers at the Mbombela stadium in Mpumalanga who were dismissed following a strike over wages allegedly burned a truck, motor bikes and a mobile office on the construction site.

A strike at Green Point in September last year led to losses of about R1 million a day.

Koopman's award followed an application brought by the National Union of Mineworkers and the Building Construction and Allied Workers Union against the Murray & Roberts/WBHO joint venture contracted to build the Green Point stadium.

The unions represent some 35% of the just over 900 workers on the site, the rest of whom are not unionised.

The unions complained that the employers had refused to negotiate at site level over a union proposal for a R1500 a month "project bonus" for all workers, not linked to productivity, and a R15 an hour wage increase.

The increase would be a 90 percent hike in their wages.

BCAWU organiser Eugenia Peter maintained in the arbitration hearing that the workers should get the proposed bonus even if they went on strike.

As the stadium superstructure is due to be completed in September, this would mean an additional R6000 for every worker.

In his submissions to the arbitrator, the joint venture's advocate, Colin Kahanovitz, said the workers were already being paid a performance-linked incentive bonus.

Although an agreement for a "project bonus" had been concluded after a strike at the Durban stadium, the payment of that bonus had also been linked to the achievement of construction targets, he said.

The employers had argued that the unions' application was "frivolous and vexatious".

"The main purpose of these hearings seems to have been to allow the unions involved to show their members that they were prepared to try to do something in order to cultivate membership," Kahanovitz said.

Koopman said in his findings that the unions believed that if the matter remained unresolved, it would ultimately give them the opportunity to embark on a protected strike.

But he found that the unions at the Green Point Stadium had no right to demand negotiations at a site rather than a bargaining council on remuneration issues.

He said he had decided not to make any costs order.

"The relationship between the parties is at a delicate stage and a costs order may exacerbate tension," he said.

Angry Mbombela Stadium workers allegedly burnt a heavy duty truck, two motorbikes and a mobile guard house on Wednesday after they were dismissed.

Construction once again came to a grinding halt as a result of a labour dispute that saw 500 employees dismissed. The stadium is already 60 days behind schedule owing to a number of previous protests.

Police spokesman Dawie Pretorius said no one had been arrested. He said police had identified some suspects who would face the might of the law.

“The suspects face charges of malicious damage to property, arson and public violence,” Pretorius said.

NUM spokesman George Ledwaba said the strike, which started last Friday, was in protest against management’s threat not to pay the promised R1500 performance bonus if workers did not agree to work night shift at an allowance of R120 a month. Ledwaba said workers would only agree to work for an allowance of R800 a month.

Basil Read and Bouygues Civil Works said in a statement that they had terminated the employment contracts of all employees who took part in the strike with immediate effect.

“We have taken a difficult but necessary decision to dismiss these employees.”

Striking workers at the Mbombela stadium will return to work on Monday while they wait for a response from the CCMA

Construction workers at Mpumalanga’s Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit – which will host some 2010 World Cup games – have resumed work after resolving their problems with their employer.

The workers went on strike for the second time last Friday in a protest over project bonuses.

The protest was on the back of the first protest two weeks before when workers downed tools for what they said was ‘non-adherence’ by the employer to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

But the strike was temporarily suspended after agreement that the workers go back to work while the employer and the workers’ union tried to resolve the problem.

But last week there was a communication breakdown while the management of the Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture – the builders of the stadium – and the workers’ representatives, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), were in a meeting to discuss working conditions and project bonuses.

The union wants bonuses to be increased to R2000 this year and R1500 in June next year. They also want the current hourly rate to be increased by R3 to R10,80.

“We have always been confident that the two parties would find a solution,” said Desmond Golding, Mpumalanga’s 2010 director.

Construction workers at Mpumalanga’s Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit – which will host some 2010 World Cup games – have resumed work after resolving their problems with their employer.

The workers went on strike for the second time last Friday in a protest over project bonuses.

The protest was on the back of the first protest two weeks before when workers downed tools for what they said was ‘non-adherence’ by the employer to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

But the strike was temporarily suspended after agreement that the workers go back to work while the employer and the workers’ union tried to resolve the problem.

But last week there was a communication breakdown while the management of the Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture – the builders of the stadium – and the workers’ representatives, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), were in a meeting to discuss working conditions and project bonuses.

The union wants bonuses to be increased to R2000 this year and R1500 in June next year. They also want the current hourly rate to be increased by R3 to R10,80.

“We have always been confident that the two parties would find a solution,” said Desmond Golding, Mpumalanga’s 2010 director.

The strike by construction workers at the Mbombela 2010 soccer stadium in Nelspruit has entered its fifth day

Unless the Ethekwini Municipality pushed the company building Durban’s 2010 stadium to pay its workers decent wages, the labour strike would continue — a move which will affect the deadlines set by world soccer controlling body Fifa , the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said last week.