COSATU Call Center Number 010 002 2590

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has recently launched a new call center to provide much-needed assistance to workers facing labour-related challenges. This dedicated resource aims to offer support, information, and guidance to both members of COSATU-affiliated unions and unorganized workers, ensuring that they have a place to turn for help with workplace issues.

COSATU welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assenting of the Railway Safety Bill

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assenting of the Railway Safety Bill. 

This is a long overdue and important Bill to ensure railway workers, commuters and freight can travel and arrive at their destinations safely. COSATU supports the progressive objectives and provisions of the Bill that seek to overhaul our often-weak health and safety provisions governing our passenger and freight railway network. 

Key critical progressive clauses in the Bill intending to improve railway safety include empowering the Railway Safety Regulator and its inspectors to inspect, seize documents and other relevant evidence as well as to suspend railway operations where needed to protect lives and cargo.

We welcome its provisions providing for worker representation on the Railway Safety Regulator’s Board.  It is workers who run our railway network.  Their inclusion on the Board will enable them to raise serious concerns and challenges immediately, allow them to table practical interventions and solutions, and help ensure the collective buy-in of workers of the Regulator’s railway safety plans.

The Federation looks forward to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promulgation of this important law and its implementation. 

Whilst COSATU welcomes the progressive objectives of the Bill, government, Metro Rail and Transnet as well as law enforcement need to move with speed to enforce its full implementation if we are to ensure the safety of railway workers, commuters and freight.  We cannot afford a business-as-usual approach when the lives and jobs of workers hang in the balance.

Issued by COSATU

Matthew Parks(COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)

Cell: 082 785 0687

Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za