*** 28-Jul-0* ***
Title: TRADE-SOUTH AFRICA: Controversy Over Relaxing Of Labour Laws
By Farah Khan
JOHANNESBURG July 28 (IPS) - Trade unions have responded angrily
to the South African government's announcement that it will relax
labour laws in order to attract investment.
Double pay for Sunday work has been scrapped, it will be easier
for employers to fire workers on probation and longer working days
are in the pipeline as the state moved to satisfy a host of
complaints that labour laws were preventing job creation.
"The amendments go a long way to increase the sensitivity of
our legal framework to the imperative to create jobs," said Labour
Minister, Shepherd Mdladlana, when he unveiled the changes this
week.
Mdladlana has been under political pressure from the Cabinet to
create greater labour flexibility.
President Thabo Mbeki has also been told by the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank and members of his International
Investment Council that South African labour laws are too
expensive to manage, that wages are too high and conditions of
employment too liberal.
This, they have argued, is a disincentive to both domestic and
foreign investors.
After one year's negotiations with labour, business and
representatives of communities where unemployment is high,
government unveiled its proposed changes.
The extensive changes alter three pieces of legislation: the
Labour Relations Act; the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and
the Insolvency Act.
In a nutshell, the changes which favour business include;
abolishing double pay for Sunday work, allowing the Minister to
increase the working week from 45 hours per week, allowing the
Minister to alter core rights including restrictions on night work
and child labour, limit the extension of bargaining agreements to
non-parties and small businesses and expediting the progress of
labour disputes through statutory bodies.
The changes which benefit labour include; greater protection
for contract workers, more negotiation of planned retrenchments,
more protection when workers are transferred through
privatisation, mergers etc
Despite the balance which the government tried to achieve
between the competing interests of trade unions and business, the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said Thursday
that, "The labour market review process has gone horribly wrong."
Cosatu, which has 1.8-million members across industries, added
that the changes "completely upset the delicate balance achieved
through years of negotiations".
Cosatu is in a political alliance with the ruling African
National Congress (ANC) and the South Africa Communist Party
(SACP). Its mass power has played a significant role in winning
the past two elections for the ANC.
But yesterday the federation was so angry that it issued a
veiled threat on its continuing support for the ANC government.
"Cosatu wishes to warn the Department of Labour that the hard
won rights of mainly black workers will not willy-nilly be taken
away. We shall resist this attack with every possible means within
our power."
It said that the amendments lacked integrity because it went
against promises that the ANC had made to Cosatu; the federation
would take its complaints to Mbeki. The amendments "threaten to
plunge our country into a period of protracted conflict," it
concluded.
Cosatu is most upset at government's decision to vary core
employment conditions like working hours.
"They contradict government's commitment to reduce hours of
work over time to a 40-hour working week." The working week is
currently 45 hours, but can now be made longer.
The federation also wanted more protection for casual and
temporary workers - a type of work growing more and more common in
the South African labour market.
Cosatu also wanted government to make retrenchments an issue of
formal workplace negotiation - a request the Labour Department has
not acceded to.
Government said that neither labour nor business would be 100
percent satisfied with the amendments. Business cautiously
welcomed the changes, but said they could have gone further.
A representative of the SA Chamber of Business (Sacob) said
that it would like to see the creation of zones where no labour
laws apply, a position similar to that in South East Asian
countries.
The opposition Democratic Party said that it was disappointed
that government had not limited the right to strike.
The amendments have been published for public comment. In
September, the social partners (government, business and labour)
will begin to negotiate the changes at the National Economic
Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) before they are presented
to parliament for ratification.
The Labour Minister said that he hoped to pass the amendments
by the end of the year - but with a protracted fight in the
offing, nobody is holding their breath. (END/IPS/fk/sm/00)
Origin: Harare/TRADE-SOUTH AFRICA/
----
[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
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