FRIDAY, 1.30PM
COSATU has hit back at Labour Minister Tito Mboweni for his threat to pull the employment Bill out of parliament if a business-labour agreement is not reached.
Cosatu, the country’s major trade union alliance, says the withdrawal of the disputed Basic Conditions of Employment Bill “will reward business for its intransigence”. It will send a message to business “that you must just refuse to seek solutions in negotations and you are guaranteed the derailing of any law that seeks to effect transformation”.
Cosatu says the threat also shows a lack of confidence in ANC members of parliament to make decisions. Cosatu believes that the minister, as an ANC member, should not consider himself a neutral mediator between business and labour, but should implement the reconstruction programmes he was voted in to deliver.