Workers’ rights: Union members tend to become spectators while leaders take decisions

As thousands of workers yesterday marked May Day, a labour expert says the Labour Relations Act (LRA) has affected working conditions.

This has been strengthened by labour federations Cosatu and Saftu being united in opposition to the value-added tax (VAT) hike and amendments to labour laws.

Prof Lucien van der Walt, of Rhodes University’s economics and governance department, lauded the LRA as the first legislation in the country’s history to provide all workers “access to a formal industrial relations machinery.”

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This, said Van der Walt, included protected strikes and other measures from which unions benefited.

“Until the late 1970s, such legislation excluded black African workers, who were confined to a separate, labour-repressive system,” he said.

“The changes in the 1980s facilitated massive union growth, with Cosatu membership growing from 450 000 in 1985 to well over two million in the 2000s.”

‘Downsize’

However, Van der Walt said the downside of the LRA was that “it – like its predecessor, the Industrial Conciliation Act – is based around time-consuming and bureaucratic processes”.

“For workers to have a protected strike, other avenues provided to resolve the issues must be exhausted,” he said.

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“Unions get entangled in lengthy and complicated procedures. This affects how unions work, with members left out.

“Rather than driving and controlling, members tend to become spectators, with organisers and leaders focusing on the legal system, rather than on worker mobilisation and education.

“Organisers and leaders also get more power through their know-how and often make decisions without direction from members.

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“So, over time, the LRA has fostered a much more top-down, passive approach to trade unionism,” he added.

Employment equity

Employment equity (EE) – currently a bone of contention between the right and left of SA’s political spectrum – “has had a major effect”.

“The SA workforce was historically highly shaped by race and sex. Essentially, white workers dominated many skilled and better-paying jobs, including government,” said Van der Walt.

“Women of all races were locked out of many occupations.

“EE measures have shifted this situation, most notably in government, which is by far the biggest single employer.

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“There have also been changes in the private sector. There has been enormous pressure to have what has been deemed a more representative workforce. “But EE has had little effect on people living with disabilities.”

Van der Walt said EE limitations included:

• Measures expressed in law and policy, not intended to act as a simple quota system reserving jobs by race or sex; and
• Fostering racial tensions among workers through conflicts over jobs and promotions.

“The reality that EE is simply unable to address broader problems of widespread low-wage work, job insecurity and unemployment,” he said.

“Conflicts over EE would be less serious if there were more jobs and better jobs. There would be less competition for a small number of skilled, well-paid jobs and less stress for people who lost jobs.

“But EE, by its nature, is focused on the redistribution of fairly small numbers of well-paid and skilled jobs.”

‘Anti-worker labour laws’

In his May Day message, Saftu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said workers across the labour movement were “united in opposition to the VAT increase and anti-worker labour laws”.

“Comrades, we meet at a moment of profound danger, with the working class under siege. Brutal austerity is ripping apart our communities. Corporate profiteering is driving hunger and homelessness,” said Vavi.

“The bosses and their government are not stopping at VAT. They are unleashing a direct assault on worker rights through vicious labour law amendments and a draft code of good practice on dismissal.

“These are not technical changes, but are rather a blatant declaration of war on the working class. Saftu calls for mass resistance against these betrayals,” he added.

Cosatu said it remained opposed to proposed amendments to labour law, which followed extensive engagements between labour and business at the National Economic Development and Labour Council, with similar public hearings held in parliament.

According to Cosatu national spokesperson, Matthew Parks, changes to the law included “adapting employment equity targets to take into account regional demographic diversity and to adopt more focused targets for sectors falling woefully behind employment equity”.

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– brians@citizen.co.za