Business Day
*Manuel welcomes Fedusa input on plan* ***Alistair Anderson, Business Day, Johannesburg, 30 November 2011*THE Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) intends making proposals to improve the government's new 20-year National Development Plan, especially with regard to labour market reform.
Fedusa believed the plan's suggestions on labour showed a lack of detailed knowledge of the labour market, general secretary Dennis George said yesterday.
The National Development Plan is intended to reduce unemployment from about 25% now to 14% in 2020 and to 6% in 2030.
The plan draws a link between pay increases and productivity, and proposes making it easier to dismiss workers for poor performance. The plan proposes a tax subsidy be offered to employers to reduce the initial cost of hiring young entrants to the labour market. The idea is to make it easier to employ young people and to import high-level skills.
Mr George said he understood that SA's education system would need some changes in order to produce more skilled people and that, in the meantime, skills could be imported.
"We cannot defeat unemployment overnight. We know there is a lack of skills in the economy. Thus, we need some changes to training," he said.
"The plan is a dense document which needs to be broken down into workable portions. Its labour proposals could benefit from our insight," he said.
Mr George was speaking at a press briefing in Roodepoort with Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel , who also chairs the National Planning Commission.
The briefing was held to announce that the commission had agreed to consider Fedusa's proposals in the early stages of the plan's life.
Mr George said: "The plan is rough. It needs our input. For example, one proposal applies to people who earn more than R300000 a year. It says if these people have disputes, these matters should go to the labour court and Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
"But those courts are clogged up by many lower-income workers who believe they have been unfairly dismissed. The R300000 person cases would take long to resolve; say 15 to 24 months. They would need more specialised judges and attorneys would have to be paid," he said.
Mr Manuel welcomed Fedusa's decision to contribute to the plan. "Fedusa is committed to social dialogue and we think the country needs an open dialogue," he said.
Fedusa is widely seen as competing with the African National Congress-aligned Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) for pre-eminence.
Cosatu claims to have about 2- million members, with as many as 1,8-million paying subscriptions in any given month.
Fedusa has about 500000 members, and is not officially aligned with any party.
Meanwhile, both Mr George and Mr Manuel voiced their concern about corruption. They seemed to agree tender procurement needed to be centralised, to allow for the awarding of contracts on merit and not through political connections.
"Corruption must be tackled wherever it exists, in both the public and private sectors," Mr Manuel said.
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