Workers’ deal just gets tougher

In reality, workers around South Africa would have done little celebrating yesterday, Workers’ Day. Even the ones enticed or pressured to attend rallies addressed by ANC ministers pretending to have the “common touch” would have found little to get down and party about.

Times are tough for most workers in this country, pressed by rising prices and incomes which are not keeping up with inflation and looking over their shoulders about possible retrenchments as companies struggle to keep their heads above water.

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Some business owners might point to the raft of worker-friendly laws passed since 1994 as the reason companies are battling… and because of this, they are hiring fewer people.

Though they won’t say it publicly, they hire foreigners because it is perceived they will work for less and won’t go to organisations like the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration for fear of exposing their immigration status.

Yet, on a moral balance, the laws the ANC has pioneered have brought much greater protection to a class of people who were hitherto powerless and at the whims of employers. Workers in South Africa are better off than in many other countries because of this.

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However, there is no doubt that, complaints by big business notwithstanding, unions in our country have been far less disruptive than in the past.

Is it because their leaders have sold out for a comfy life? Let’s not forget that our billionaire president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was once a firebrand mineworkers’ leader.

As veteran labour expert Terry Bell notes today, the muted marking of Labour Day reflects that workers and organised labour are uncertain about the future because of developments like artificial intelligence, which will change the nature of work forever.

What never changes, though, is that the rich will get richer and the workers will work harder for less.

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