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Fighting to be heard: For the South African Guild of Actors the idea that performers can be protected through a
sectoral determination is not new. Photo: File

A long road to recognition

Government’s proposed labour reforms could finally extend employee protections to South Africa’s creative workforce but unions warn the real work starts now

Graphic: John McCann

AI must serve labour, not subjugate it, G20 labour group says

Labour federations said the digital economy could lead to further marginalisation of workers and called for platform accountability and job protection

South Africa’s gender pay gap leaves women behind

Just 3% of chief executives of JSE-listed companies are female

The commencement date of the amendments has not yet been proclaimed. File photo.

More workers brought into labour safety net

Minister Thulas Nxesi has raised the earnings threshold for employees receiving certain protections under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act

Divorce jobs from access to basic services

Job creation should not be the peak of our ambition. We could decommodify life’s necessities instead

The Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Traditional Council and Observatory Civic Association says that application for leave to appeal interim interdict is attempt to save face

Right of reply: A rejoinder to the Zenprop chief executive about Amazon’s HQ

Zenprop chief executive James Tannenberger, who stands to benefit financially from the River Club development, failed to address the substantive points of our original article

Food delivery drivers seek better employee rights

A group of South African Uber drivers plan to go to court to seek employee rights including compensation for overtime and holiday pay, hoping for a similar victory to that of…

Sexual harassment complaints against NTI manager ‘ignored’

Woman contract employee accuses her former manager of sexually predatory behaviour

Grace Gichanga is the creator of LUMA (Legal Understanding Made Accessible), a chatbot that provides freely accessible legal advice. Maboneng, Johannesburg. (James Puttick)

Chatbot advice for lockdown-hit workers

Luma, a new legal advice chatbot, will help people navigate daunting workplace disputes

Workers demand that they be made permanent employees of provincial health departments — with higher salaries, as well as medical aid and pension benefits — instead of being outsourced to nonprofits organisations that pay them stipend.

Why Covid likely won’t change the plight of community health workers

In the absence of action from the health department, South Africa’s community health workers are once again having to fight for their rights, with a nationwide strike planned…

A recent Constitutional Court judgment empowers employers to change their workers’ employment conditions if the further functioning of a company requires this. If workers refuse, they may be dismissed without severance. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Constitutional Court ruling on restructuring dispute is good for employers

A judgment from the apex court empowers employers to change their workers’ contracts — without consultation

Live-in domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse because they are isolated and totally under their employers’ control. (David Harrison/M&G)

Domestic workers face a lonely battle against abuse

Behind closed doors, domestic workers are vulnerable to workplace violence and abuse, with little recourse against their employers

The rights of workers to go on strike have been seriously eroded in the past six years.(David Harrison/M&G)

Workers rights rolled back as Covid-19 strikes

The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has laid bare longstanding deficiencies in labour rights around the world

If South Africa truly values the principles of dignity, equality and social justice on which its democracy was founded, then it must ensure that the very people who carried communities through crises are not left behind in the pursuit of reform.

Invisible threat to workers’ rights

Nearly half of all workplaces inspected by the department of labour found to be unsafe

(Mail & Guardian)

EDITORIAL: Jo’burg’s ‘horror factory’

Workers at the factory were found to be toiling under appalling conditions for only R65 a day.

(David Harrison/M&G)

Despite legislation, workers’s rights are still abused

The Constitution enshrines the right to dignity, but it should also include the right to work