Subcontracting in the gold-mining industry is eroding working conditions and miners’ safety, writes Barry Streek
A new study has found that South African gold mines are increasingly relying on subcontracted labour, estimated to make up more than 10%of the labour force, which has rolled back union power and worker rights.
Very little is known about the sudden explosion of subcontracted labour since the late 1980s, however. Subcontracted miners are routinely required to work longer hours and under more dangerous conditions than ordinary miners.
The authors of the study – Jonathan Crush, Theresa Ulicki, Teke Tseane and Elizabeth Jansen van Vuuren – have called on the government to launch an independent investigation into the scope and impact of subcontracting in the gold- mining industry.
This would be the necessary first step to stopping the ongoing erosion of working conditions and miners’ safety that is accompanying the growth of subcontracting.
They also say the Department of Labour should move expeditiously, through investigation and, if necessary, prosecution to bring subcontracting into line with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
The study, Undermining Labour: Migrancy and Subcontracting in the South African Gold Industry, was released this week by the Southern African Mining Project (SAMP) and is published by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa.
In only a decade, the gold-mining industry has shed more than 50% of its workforce from more than 500 000 workers in 1987 to 240 000 in 1998. As a result large numbers of unemployed ex-miners are looking for work.
It is estimated that in terms of labour- only subcontracting, there were more than 3 000 brokering agencies in 1995, supplying more than 100 000 workers at any one time.
As long ago as 1995, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Chamber of Mines reached an agreement on information-sharing on subcontracting, but the agreement has never been implemented.
“The main players seem to know, or will admit to knowing, very little. The government knows even less. Neighbouring states that depend on mine migrancy to South Africa are also in the dark,” the study reads.
“Our impression was that the mines are extremely reluctant to divulge the full extent of their subcontracting relationships.”
SAMP, which explored subcontract- ing working conditions and experiences of ordinary miners in Lesotho based on interviews with a sample of workers, recruiters, managers and subcontractors, says sound and reliable information on the whole subcontracting phenomenon is urgently needed.
The study found that the rise of subcontracting has rolled back union power and worker rights.
Subcontracting produces new tensions within the NUM between regular and subcontract workers. Retrenchments and subcontracting contribute to the decline in union membership. About 70% report that union participation is discouraged by the contractor and 40% claim workers are dismissed if they join a union.
The authors reached four other major conclusions:
l Subcontract employment is a relatively new experience for most miners, but nearly two-thirds of subcontracted workers are simply retrenched miners with previous mine experience.
Some contractors do hire new workers without any previous mine experience, mainly because experienced miners have expectations from previous jobs, which can lead to greater dissatisfaction.
l Subcontractors prefer foreign workers since they are more likely to accept wages and working conditions that South Africans shun.
The proportion of foreign labour in the subcontracting sector is rising and is now just more than 30%. The larger contractors favour Mozambique and Lesotho.
l The employment of subcontracted workers is highly unpredictable, irregular, insecure and unstable.
The uncertainty is acutely felt when workers are retrenched. The vast majority received no severance package, and almost half were given no notice and were required to leave the workplace and hostels within a matter of hours.
Mines typically give workers a month’s notice. Only 14% of those retrenched by contractors were given at least one month’s notice.
l Working conditions and compensation of subcontracted miners are generally worse than those of regular miners. As many as two-thirds of miners interviewed claim they were not advised of the terms of their contract before starting their job.
They say they are not paid the wages they are promised, the benefits and the bonuses stipulated are not adhered to and the agreed accommodation is not available.
In addition, 52% say they are routinely paid late, 10% state they are not paid in full and 70% earn less than R800 a month, compared to 48% of regular miners.
In the Vaal Reefs disaster of 1995 the mineworkers employed by contractors were not covered by death benefits and their families received very little by way of compensation.
A special disaster fund was established and through this each family was given R5 000. The families of regular mine employees, however, received R60 000 each.
The authors conclude by saying that although the rapid growth of subcontracting on the South African mines has virtually been ignored to date, and that sound policy-making in relation to subcontracting required far more information than currently existed.
But the fundamental conflict of interest between labour and business means that voluntary co-operation on information and full disclosure is unlikely.
A detailed independent inquiry into all facts of this development is therefore recommended.