South Africa: “Fidelity Cash Men on Strike in Durban”

Graeme Hosken of the Durban, South Africa Daily News reports on a strike over polygraph “testing.” This short article is cited here in full:

Scores of Durban’s automatic teller machines (ATMs) and businesses are expected to run dry on Monday after Fidelity Cash Management Services (FCMS) employees went on strike over the weekend.

The strike – which began on Saturday and is set to continue throughout the week and possibly into next week – is expected to affect hundreds of ATMs and businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The strike is over a compulsory polygraph test as well as, say workers, the fact that they are being forced to pay for cash boxes that are damaged during robberies.

Strikers are demanding the polygraph tests, which have been conducted for the last eight years, be ended immediately.

Rob Nimmo, operations director for FCMS, said on Saturday strikers demanded that management put a moratorium on the polygraph tests.

“We obviously refused. The aim of the test, which is conducted in the event of an incident such as a robbery, is to prove the staff’s innocence and to clear their names. Not to prove their guilt,” he said.

Nimmo said there was no substance to allegations that crews were being forced to pay for damaged cash boxes.

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