WATCH: Checkers staff go on Corona strike
|Published
WORRIED: Checkers staff strike at Sun Valley Mall WORRIED: Checkers staff strike at Sun Valley Mall
Angry staffers at Checkers in Sun Valley Mall downed tools on Monday after two colleagues tested positive for Covid-19.
Employees accused management of not playing open cards with them.
According to an employee, who asked not to be named, a manager tested positive in April.
“The manager’s results came on 26 April and then people went to hospitals privately to get themselves tested because they were scared.”
She says staff who were tested were told to keep working until they had received their results but on Friday they got a skrik to hear a colleague had the virus.
WORRIED: Checkers staff strike at Sun Valley Mall
“They made people come back to work and the one woman we worked with on Friday got her tests results when she got home.
“They put up mobile clinics on Saturday and when we asked the nurses to prove they are from the health department, they couldn’t.
“So we have gone on strike and demanded that they test all of us.
“Why should we be screened when they already know we came into contact with an infected person?
“We asked for proof that the store was decontaminated and they could not provide it, but the store is open and trading.”
MEDICAL: Ambulance at mall
In a statement, the Shoprite Group says they cannot indicate how many staff at the store are infected or in quarantine due to patient confidentiality.
They say it is incorrect that staff awaiting their results were instructed to come back to work but confirm the screenings were done by independent health practitioners: “The store has reopened in consultation with the Department of Health.”