The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) is utterly disgusted by Damelin and its sister colleges (ICESA, Lyceum and CTC) โs non-payment of salaries to their employees at different campuses across the country, which translate into denying them a merry Christmas. Educor is an education investment holding that owns higher education institutions such as Damelin, CTC, Lyceum, CityVarsity and others.
This is a kick on the teeth of workers especially when considering that these employees need the money to meet their household spending obligation for the festive season.
The colleges have not paid their staff for November and December 2023 wages. In November 2023, SAFTU released a statement lamenting Damelinโs abuse of workers by not paying them on time consistently for the rest of this year, unprofessionally handling their grievances and terminating some contracts without following due process.
Every December, workers spending needs increases because of the hype that has been built around the Christmas and New Year season. In the varying metamorphosis they manifest, workers are expected to spend.
- They spend on travelling to their homes in the far flung rural areas as migrant labourers
- They spend on new clothes for their children as parents;
- They spend more on food for their families during Christmas celebrations as breadwinners;
- Given the high level of unemployment, they spend on extra clothes to help their siblings and other dependents;
- And they still have to spend on themselves and the little happiness they can salvage
Damelin, and Educor in general are denying their employees across the different institutions the opportunity of meeting their spending obligations in their varying manifestation by abusing and disregarding their rights. It is effectively denying them and their dependents a merry Christmas.
Meanwhile Damelin is not paying the salaries of their employees (and has not been doing so consistently for the rest of this year); they are offering bursaries of up to R1 million on their website for 2024. This is a complete irony: how could people who are failing to pay salaries be offering bursaries of up to R1 million! It is our contention that such money must not be used to lure prospective students to register for 2024, but to pay the employees who have already credited these institutions with their labour power.
SAFTU calls on Educor and its subsidiary institutions to pay workers their salaries for November and December 2023 so that they can give their families and other dependents a merry Christmas.
