Business Unity South Africa (Busa) said on Wednesday it views the Congress Of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) call for national protest action on Thursday as “very unfortunate”.
“While we recognise and respect the right of employees to strike, we believe that our economy, which is now beginning to grow, requires all of us to work towards ensuring that we avert any action that may have a negative impact on our objectives of creating jobs and halving unemployment by 2014,” said Busa CEO Jerry Vilakazi.
He said Busa was concerned about the impact of the protest action on economic growth, transformation and job creation.
“Everyone loses from such protest action, which impacts on the employees themselves, businesses and the economy as a whole. Busa believes that it is more appropriate to maintain dialogue in an attempt to resolve the extremely complex macro-policy issues giving rise to the protest action.
“It is a pity that Cosatu is proceeding with its national stayaway instead of using all possible avenues, such as the National Economic Development and Labour Council, to try to resolve the underlying issues,” he said — I-Net Bridge