*“Labour brokers.......The modern day slave trade”* *The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) calls for the complete BAN of Labour brokers*
*13 August 2009* Its quiet astonishing, if not baffling that the Minister of labour is opting for the regulation route with respect to labour brokers as opposed to the complete banning of them. It has been proven on a preponderance of probabilities that the usage of labour brokers has been nothing but futile to the working class; the only beneficiaries of such a practise has been the labour brokers themselves as well as the companies that choose to utilise this mechanism for employment. We should deviate from being narrow-minded about the implications of the usage of labour brokers; it is not only within the context of Labour but we need to take cognisance of the socio economic impacts that it has on the actual labourer/worker. Firstly this has opened room for the intensification of exploitation by companies because the full wage that the worker is entitled to as a result of them employing their skills, is cut as a result of this intermediary broker. It minimises the workers ability to be economically active due to certain restrictions that are the default consequences of being under the administration of a labour broker. Financial institutions for example have certain requirements which become an obstacle for those that are not permanently employed by companies, meaning that one cannot apply for any long-term debt with a financial institution regardless of how long they have been employed. It also promotes perpetual casualisation of employees and that simply means that permanency is not necessarily based on merit but it is at the discretion of the employer when they see it fit; that on its own is an infringement of one’s’ rights as you might end up spending years being casual and finding yourself unemployed without prior notice as rights enjoyed by those who are permanent are not necessarily available to those that are under labour brokers. *Monopolising the labour market* There seems to be a high trend of collusion in South Africa and the labour brokerage industry has not been innocent in the process. If you have observed the tendency amongst employers and labour brokers you will see that most posts that are advertised on media are always with some reference to a broker or recruitment agency; if you to attempt contacting the organisation directly, you are referred to the labour broker direct. This now means that the working class will be subjected to the mercy of labour brokers in order to be seen as competent. The tests utilised to assess merit and skills competencies are disadvantageous to those with no access to technology. The fact that some people need to register their Resumes online already ostracises the poorest of the poor in our society!! The fact that you need to first via the route of being interviewed by the labour broker prior to the employer is an unnecessary barrier for those that have limited resources to move around logistically. *Job hopping-labour broking causation? * Notwithstanding other factors, labour broking also promotes “job-hopping” which is a serious detriment to the working class as it reflects negatively on one’s resume when further seeking greener pastures; the labour broker can easily utilise a worker for five years which is profitable for them. Now unfortunately the worker does not enjoy the same consistency with respect to architecting a career. Yes one might argue about the opportunity that is awarded to the worker to have options, but most people tend to leave jobs due to the work conditions and it seems more of a peaceful option to seek employment elsewhere than fighting losing battles with resistant employers. * * *Labour unions* The usage of labour brokerage has frustrated the process of organising employees to form unions within sectors that are labour broker oriented. This has resulted in unfair dismissals and workers accepting conditions of employment that are unbearable as a result of fear instilled by those that hold the power to hire and fire without consultation; this is another attribute to why the private sector is advocating the retaining of labour brokers. It’s easier to delegate labour dispute matters to labour brokers to deal with as opposed to the matter being dealt with by the Human resource structures or employee representative structures. This compromises the process of dealing with grievances raised by the worker as there is never a proper and objective process in order to deal with the matter at hand. It would be a complete betrayal to the working class should we agree with the minister. As mentioned, this is a “modern slave trade” practise as the ideological connotation and underlying fundamental principle utilised today is the same as that utilised in the past where men of colour and plebeians were seen as commodities of trade. Labour brokers have profited immensely since the boom of the call-centre industry (lest we forget that the majority of young people are working within call-centers). This does not promote progression as the ceiling is very low for those in that industry. People employed within that sector by labour brokers have found it exhausting and futile to take up matters with the conciliation and mediation institutions because they are always referred back to their labour brokers and we know that with labour brokers profit comes first rather than the interest of the worker. It’s imperative that we look at this matter holistically because it seems now that the Minister has the private sectors’ interests as well as those that are the profiteers of the practise and suppressing the casualties of this practise. This has also exposed that companies blatantly refuse to increase wages; if they can pay labour brokers why can’t they increase wages? We fail to see the logic of having a human resource department whereby 60% of the work is outsourced to labour brokers and people that administer payrolls, but yet we have an HR manager that still gets a full-scale market related salary. Clearly this indicates that there is a huge resistance by the private sector to pay workers decent wages, they would rather enrich other capitalists just like them and continue to frustrate workers. The Young communist league of South Africa calls for the COMPLETE BAN of labour brokers!! *Issued by the YCLSA head office* *For further information contact: Gugu Ndima (Spokesperson)* *076 783 1516* *011 339 3621* *[email protected]* -- Gugu Ndima +27 76 783 1516 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. 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