Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has rejected the findings in a government-commissioned regulatory impact assessment (RIA) report about draft labour law amendments.
The organisation says it “totally rejects” the statement by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that the proposed amendments to labour legislation "would place literally millions of jobs in jeopardy, would in all likelihood be unconstitutional, would have serious de-stabilising effects in the labour market, and would result in significant other unintended consequences".
Cosatu's national spokesperson Patrick Craven says the fact that this argument arose from an RIA report done for the Department of Labour (DOL) and the Presidency makes no difference.
“We strongly disagree with the argument, from whichever source it comes.”
Creation myth
Cosatu says it is still examining the details of government's draft amendments to the Bills, but “utterly rejects the argument... that the proposed repeal of section 198 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA), which regulates labour brokers, will effectively prohibit labour broking and lead to job losses”.
“It is a big myth, propagated by the DA and its ideological friends in business and the media that labour brokers 'create jobs'. On the contrary, only those companies actively involved in production and service delivery create jobs and they would still require the same number of workers if there were no labour brokers.”
Cosatu says labour brokers provide cheap labour to their “client” companies, to relieve them of the responsibility of ensuring workers receive the wages and benefits to which they are entitled, and to save them from paying towards medical aids and pension funds.
“Most of the client companies never calculate whether this actually saves them any money, because of the excessive cost of paying the labour brokers.
More propaganda
Cosatu cites a report by the Adcorp Employment Index, which shows labour broker workers represent 6.8% of total employment in SA and 23.2% of the 2.13 million workers who are currently classified as temporary.
“This is having a devastating negative effect on the levels of pay, job security and benefits for thousands of workers.
“It is cheap propaganda for the DA, acting as the employers' spokesperson, to spread the lie that there has to be a trade-off - that if you want more jobs you have to settle for lower pay and worse conditions, and if you want decent work you will have fewer jobs.”
Member increase
Cosatu says it is still not clear whether the repeal of Section 198 will in fact have the effect of banning labour brokers, but it will continue to insist that nothing less than a total ban will be acceptable.
“We shall also campaign relentlessly against the 'casualisation' of labour and for all workers to receive the protection they are entitled to under the labour laws and the constitution.”
DA shadow minister of labour Ian Ollis says the four labour Bills that were gazetted over the holiday period are designed partly to address legitimate problems, and partly to appease Cosatu and boost the number of unionised workers.
Ollis explains that the problem is not with workers joining unions, but with the Cabinet and the DOL, “who are acceding to Cosatu's demands with little regard to those who stand to lose jobs, or indeed to the plight of SA's unemployed - who will find it harder than ever to find work, should these measures be promulgated”.
Controversial amendments
Draft amendments to the LRA, Basic Conditions of Employment Act and Employment Equity Act, and a new piece of proposed legislation - the Public Employment Services Bill - were published in the Government Gazette in December.
In September, an RIA report on the amendments and new Bills was compiled, which shows some of the amendments are unconstitutional and could have de-stabilising effects in the labour market, causing job loss.
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