Government has called on local business to do everything in their power to prevent retrenchments in the face of the global economic downturn. The minister of labour, Mr Membathisi Mdladlana, outlined challenges facing workers and trade unions in 2009, during an address to the Chemical, Energy, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union National Collective Bargaining Conference, in Pretoria.
The minister declared the conference to be opportune given the current global financial crisis that had, once again, placed the workers' agenda “centre-stage”. The local economy had experienced “intensified job losses”, in particular within the mining and manufacturing sectors.
The reduction of retrenchments was vital to prevent a weakening in productive capacity and a concomitant drop in demand.
The minister stressed that companies in different sectors will be affected in diverse ways by the economic downturn. Many employers had already declared that they could not cope with the dire conditions caused by the crisis. However, the minister cautioned the trade union movement to clearly establish, when engaged in bargaining with struggling companies, what type of problems the companies were suffering from.
He advocated that bargaining should be governed by a “shared understanding of the challenges that face the companies where you find yourselves”. Similarly, a shared understanding of the nature of the economic situation would have to be developed at the centralised bargaining level.
The minister declared that government was “urging companies to do everything in their power to avoid retrenchments as a result of the economic situation”. All alternatives should be considered, including restraining executive bonuses.
The economic downturn presented an opportunity for trade unions to press for retraining and skills enhancement of workers in order to prepare South African companies to perform optimally when the anticipated turnaround occurred.
According to the minister, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) was actively arranging discussions between employers and trade unions in order to find alternatives to retrenchments.
In terms of downscaling or retrenchments, the minister reminded workers of the legal requirements that employers had to comply with. For example, employers had to adhere to section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, the code of good practice on dismissal and provisions within bargaining council collective agreements.
The minister announced that government was presently involved in “structured interaction” with business and labour to devise meaningful interventions to be applied in the short-term to try and shield the local economy from the crisis. Social dialogue was perceived to be the methodology best suited to balance conflicting interests and attain viable solutions.
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