THURSDAY, 4.30PM
LABOUR Minister Tito Mboweni, speaking to ANC youth members on Thursday, said employers who claimed that the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill discouraged job creation were wrong.
”The Bill is intended to protect workers, to ensure that they have fair conditions of employment befitting a human being.”
He said the country’s massive unemployment — two million people, mainly under 30 — could be attributed to a decline in the economy dating back to the seventies, the increasing number of capital-intensive projects that failed to create many jobs, and the growing process of globalisation.
THURSDAY, 8.30AM
BUSINESS South Africa (BSA) says that if South Africa adopts a 40 hour week and the increased leave proposals in the Conditions of Employment Bill, the average South African worker will work 53 days less than his counterparts in similar countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia or Greece. BSA also quoted a study by a US economist Robert Lucas, which found that if the wage bill goes up 10%, employment among blacks will fall 7%.
Meanwhile Cosatu announced that it would make submissions to the Truth Commission next month, arguing that business must compensate black workers for the violation of their rights during the apartheid era, by closing the ‘apartheid wage” gap.