The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has renewed its calls for the complete banning of labour broking, threatening protest action if it doesn't get its way.
President of the trade union federation Sdumo Dlamini, and VP Joseph Maqhekeni, both called for the banning of labour broking, saying the practice was damaging workers' interests. Both were speaking during Cosatu's 10th National Congress, in Midrand, and threatened the country would “brought to a standstill” if government doesn't heed its calls.
This follows recent heated debates in Parliament between government, trade unions and business, where the trade union federation called for the abolishment of labour broking. While the director-general of labour, Jimmy Manyi, has indicated the department would tighten regulation and increase compliance with labour laws, he faces a tough challenge from his minister and trade unions.
The Department of Labour is proposing amendments to several Acts, which all fall under the Labour Relations Act. The new legislation would either abolish or increase regulation of all temporary employment services. Labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana and several trade unions have called for the abolishment of temporary services and indicated they were no longer willing to table discussions on proposed amendments.
Dlamini warned that the federation would take to the streets if the labour brokers were not banned.
“Labour broking and job creation do not go together. What we want is a total ban. If this does not happen, the country will be brought to a standstill. We'll meet each another in the streets,” he said.
Delusional calls
Cosatu's call for a total ban on labour brokers has come under fire from the DA. The political party says Cosatu is ignorant of labour brokers' roles and their wide usage by government and the private sector.
“[This] is a clear sign of an organisation that is delusional to its core - it cannot read the news and see the reality for itself; but would rather hammer on the same tired and ignorant message than engage in real debate,” said Andrew Louw, shadow minister of labour for the DA.
While business has called on government to be moderate and rather improve regulatory measures, Cosatu has ignored these calls. The Information Technology Association and Business Unity SA have indicated the IT industry would be negatively impacted by the proposed amendments. The bodies point out the amendments would result in the end of skills-based services and spell the end of the outsourcing industry.
“More and more evidence is piling up against their weak argument that labour brokers are 'slave traffickers' that inherently exploit workers. If this was true, then the ANC government is guilty by association,” said Louw.
Government compliance
The DA says parliamentary questions on labour broker usage at all government departments prove the practice is an “indispensable part of the economy in providing a service to government and the private sector”.
According to parliamentary responses, the Department of Communications uses labour brokers in order to “assist during international conferences; to stand in for employees who were on maternity leave or incapacity leave due to ill health; and due to capacity reasons”.
SAA uses labour brokers, because “temporary labour is also utilised as part of the flexible workforce model, as this model has proven to be more cost-effective at cargo and technical, and gives SAA the flexibility to optimise its workforce utilisation in order to meet operational needs”.
”If worker exploitation was Cosatu's real consideration, then they would have been amenable to a rational and level-headed debate on how to specifically address the issue. Their antics only serve to prove one thing: the call to ban labour brokers is completely political and they do not care who they hurt or what damage they inflict in order to steamroller through their agenda,” Louw states.
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