TUESDAY, 2.30PM
LABOUR federation the Congress of SA Trade Unions on Tuesday called for an end to negotiations in the National Economic Development and Labour Council on the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, and proposed that the Bill be sent straigh to Parliament for a decision on disputed areas of the Bill.
In a press statement released at the end of its two-week deadline for responses from Business South Africa to demands including a 40-hour working week, six months’ paid maternity leave and a 16-year-old threshold for child labour, Cosatu rejected a BSA proposal that the Bill be postponed until after the jobs summit scheduled for October.
The statement said: “We have already indicated that we are opposed to a link between the jobs summit and the Bill. Business and ourselves have already endorsed the Minister’s five year plan. Their proposals amount to rejection of the need for transformation in the workplace.” Cosatu added that passing a watered down version of the Bill will also be unacceptable and proposed an end to negotiations in Nedlac on the Bill and putting the Bill before Parliament for a decision.
“As Cosatu, we are confidant that the parliamentary process will yield positive results. Those comrades know the plight of South African workers, be they women, unorganised or farmworkers. They will not allow business to hold the process of transformation to ransom'” the Cosatu staement said.
Cosatu also called on members to stage lunchtime demonstrations in their workplaces to reiterate the Cosatu demads, and promised to send workers a standard form letter to present to their employers detailing Cosatu’s response to BSA’s demands. The Cosatu response comes as something of a climbdown, after the union group had threatened further national strikes if its demands were not met by Tuesday’s deadline.