Two different approaches to job creation and the gloomy situation indicated by the quarterly employment statistics were put forward on Wednesday by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Cosatu said the government needs to follow an interventionist approach and be a more active player in the labour market to ensure employment growth.
Reacting to the latest employment figures that show employment increased by 174Â 000 jobs between March 2007 and March 2008, Cosatu said the country is failing to create sufficient jobs.
”Cosatu is certain that such minimal growth in employment will not achieve the policy targets of halving the 2004 unemployment levels by 2014,” the trade union federation said.
”This will require a greater impetus from the government to achieve substantial increases in creating decent, quality and sustainable employment opportunities.”
Cosatu also said the statistics provide further justification for its mass action campaign, which is set to start on July 9 and end with a national stayaway on August 6.
”We are losing patience and will be taking our message to the streets,” a statement from Cosatu said, ”to make clear that we are failing to create anywhere near enough new jobs, especially quality jobs.
”We shall be raising the alarm bells to warn of even more job losses as a result of the electricity crisis, rising interest rates and the rocketing cost of fuel and food, all of which hit the workers and the poor the hardest.”
The federation said ministers must take full responsibility for recklessly ignoring Eskom’s warnings sent to them way back in 1998 that a massive injection of funds was required for new power generation to prevent the kind of crisis ”we are suffering today”.
Cosatu pointed out that employers are already shedding jobs through natural wastage, and retrenchments remain a real threat.
”Cosatu will not let this happen,” the unionists said. ”Unemployment is still far too high and it is bringing misery to millions of families. We are appealing to all workers, communities, churches and civil society to join in our protest action and help us to bring unemployment and poverty down.”
‘Chronically high levels of unemployment’
In contrast, Kobus Marais, who speaks on finance for the DA, said that South Africa cannot afford any policy missteps that will undermine confidence in the economy.
”Policies such as the Expropriation Bill and the National Health Amendment Bill, which are currently before Parliament and indicate greater state intervention in the economy, must be abandoned,” Marais said.
He pointed out that Alan Greenspan, former chairperson of the United States Federal Reserve, noted that investors have concerns about South Africa, and that already the outlook for South Africa’s credit rating has been downgraded from positive to stable by rating agency Fitch.
Marais also said that South Africa’s labour-market policies systematically price unskilled and inexperienced job-seekers out of the labour market.
”As such, South African job-seekers are faced with both chronically high levels of unemployment and lengthy unemployment spells,” he said.
He wants labour policy to facilitate a smoother transition from school to work and reduce the associated costs of employing less-skilled and -educated workers.
”One such way would be to allow customised contracts between employees and employers to vary the minimum wage sectoral determination,” he said. ”This would facilitate the employment of many more people — particularly the youth, who represent the largest portion of our unemployed.”
The DA spokesperson also insisted that a wage subsidy would significantly lower the cost of hiring unskilled, inexperienced labour.
”This idea has recently been endorsed by the International Panel on Growth, and a variation thereof was one of their recommendations,” he said. — I-Net Bridge, Sapa