Comrades that is so true, but maybe we should mobilise comrades from every sphere to go and debate this on the right platform as well, like currently the department of Labour is conducting public hearings, like Tomorrow in Germiston Civic Centre @17h00 comrades from Ekurhuleni Region should gather in numbers to debate this capitalist agenda of labour brokers,
AMANDLA..!!! Samuel Somcuba 'the only things that stand between a person and what they want in life are the will to try it, and faith to believe its possible" ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gugu Ndima Sent: 06 October 2009 02:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Labour brokers...... Trading our People away Labour brokers...... Trading our People away The decision of the Minister of labour to opt to regulate the Labour broking industry as opposed to the complete ban has been received with mixed reaction from Unions, political organisations and society as a whole. It's been proven on a preponderance of probabilities that the usage of labour brokers has been detrimental 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. The Minister of labour was quoted in a statement issued by the Department of labour on the 5th of August 2009 saying "labour broking is a form of human trafficking (not necessarily in itself an act of human trafficking)" saying the practice was selling the labour of workers to the highest bidder. He continued to say that "It is an extreme form of free market capitalism which reduces workers to commodities that can be traded for profit as if they were meat or vegetables". Clearly this is an indication that the Minister has justifiable grounds to declare the practise illegal and exploitative in its very nature. We should deviate from being narrow-minded about the implications of the usage of labour brokers; the impact is not only within the context of Labour, their impacts further manifest themselves within the socio -economic framework of most workers. Firstly labour broking has intensified exploitation by companies because the full wage that the worker is entitled to is reduced as a result of this intermediary broker. Secondly, 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 in place, which in turn become obstacles for those that are not permanently employed by companies e.g. 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 considered a casual employee and eventually finding yourself unemployed without being given 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 vindicated from the unscrupulous practise. The tendency observed amongst employers and labour brokers is that most posts that have been advertised on media always have a reference made to a labour broker firm or recruitment agency; should one 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 by labour brokers in some instances, 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 poor and the working class 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. Labour brokers: pro-employer and anti-trade unionism. Labour brokers are anti-union because they constantly move workers around from one place to another often with no access to union officials; with no possibility of stop order deduction for union subscriptions. 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 the Minister agree to allow such a perverse practise to continue. As mentioned above, 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 and retail 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 these sectors 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 who have no interest in worker disputes. It's imperative that this matter is addressed 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 in the process. This has also exposed that companies blatantly refuse to increase wages; if they can pay labour brokers why can't they increase wages? There is no logic in having a human resource department whereby 60% of the work is outsourced to labour brokers and people that administer payrolls, but yet there is an employed 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 newly founded marriage of convenience between the COPE and the DA on the issue of Labour brokers has to a certain extent exposed COPE's morality vacuum and its non-existent interest in advancing issues of the poor and the working class. Self regulation is already taking place tacitly within this industry as Labour brokers do not account to structures of government. Having a regulatory board simply monopolises the sector even further. The "newly-weds" suggested that those that would control the board would be key players in the sector; however the very same key players are the ones that have been named by the Department as unscrupulous! These two narrow minded organisations want to justify their simplistic argument by using The Estate Agency Affairs board an example, which is completely obscure as a model as the board does not with workers but simply intermediary agents. Having a board simply assists the Labour brokers in ensuring that their interests are well secured. This marriage of no substance needs to understand that the issue is LABOUR BROKERS themselves; they are not job creators, they are the agents of red tape for the prospect employee and the modem of convenience for the employer. These organisations have affirmed that they represent those that seek to undermine the struggle of the poor and the working class and advance the agenda of capitalism. The call to ban Labour brokers must be heard and championed. Gugu Ndima 076 786 1516 [email protected] Please Note: This email and its contents are subject to our email legal notice which can be viewed at http://www.sars.gov.za/Email_Disclaimer.pdf --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
