This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Dewald van Rensburg gives his preview of expected labour developments in 2017 and says that the launch of a new union federation led by expelled Cosatu affiliates promises to give SA unionism a shot in the arm.
The founding congress of the new federation is planned for the middle of March and its proposed name is the Democratic Independent Trade Union Federation of SA. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) remains at the core of the project, which is as much a draw card as a deterrent. Numsa by itself, or a federation dominated by it, could be a major source of dissent around two major labour market reforms this year. The union has “denounced with contempt” the proposal for a national minimum wage of R20 an hour, which existing federations have been negotiating at Nedlac. Numsa is also dead set against the new code of conduct for strikes that is being hammered out at Nedlac. More generally, the Department of Labour’s annual Industrial Action Report for 2015 was released late last year and demonstrates a dramatic return to normalcy in 2015. Nothing indicates that this changed in 2016 and this year should be calm as well.
- Read this informative report at City Press
- See too, Who’ll strike, settle, retrench in 2017? Gideon du Plessis looks ahead, at Fin24
- And also, Workers ignore the law as unprotected strikes soar, at Sunday Times
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page