Jaspreet Kindra and Glenda Daniels
Organised labour has bowed to pressure from the government and business and compromised on proposed amendments to labour legislation. While the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) denied that any deal had been done with the government and business, a document circulating among unions and dealing with one of the most contentious issues between business and labour says double pay for Sunday work will fall away in favour of time-and-a-half. However, in the tourism and hospitality industries, Sunday payment will not change.
The document, which is the product of the Millennium Council, a consultative forum between business and labour, is still to be ratified by Cosatu’s affiliates. The federation announced this week that it would not embark on a national strike planned for March. Last year Cosatu said that there would be “blood on the streets” if the government went ahead with proposals, including a scrapping of double time for Sunday work, and a plan to give the courts more discretion on unprocedural strikes.
In a more conciliatory mood this week, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that the deal, the contents of which he did not reveal, had struck a “correct balance that we can deal with”. The document indicates that labour has come into line with the government’s vision of creating a competitive market. It reads: “In order to make South Africa a destination of first choice for investment (domestic and foreign), the parties agree that it is necessary to have a competitive social and individual return on capital, measured over an appropriate time horizon (the individual return on capital refers to returns for investors and companies).” All the parties have committed to make South Africa the leading emerging market.
Both business and labour have agreed to simplify and shorten the process set down in labour legislation for considering the fairness or otherwise of dismissals of employees. According to the document, the governing body of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) will receive a new mandate from the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) to achieve settlement of every dismissal dispute referred to it.
This should be achieved within a set period determined after consultation with the CCMA management from the time the case is brought to the CCMA. This mandate will be phased in within a set timetable. To promote “simplicity and certainty”, the Labour Relations Act should be amended to combine processes of conciliation and arbitration. The parties have also agreed to narrow the grounds for a review of CCMA awards, but propose that mechanisms be developed to improve the quality and consistency of arbitration awards, including peer group consideration of draft awards and improved training of commissioners. In a compromise, the parties have agreed that prior membership of bona fide trade unions and employer organisations is not necessary for these associations to represent a party at CCMA arbitration hearings. The other piece of good news for workers is that the parties have agreed that unions and employees should be informed well in time of any financial difficulties experienced by companies which could result in possible liquidations. This will bring about necessary amendments to the Insolvency Act and related legislation making it mandatory to keep the employees informed including giving them a copy of any application for provisional or final liquidation at the same time that it is served on creditors.
Vavi did, however, sound an aggressive note, by complaining that there is no room within the tripartite alliance for Cosatu to make input or influence the country’s budget, which is to be presented to Parliament next week.