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.
Mining Weekly provides a comprehensive report on how matters stand regarding the provision of housing for mineworkers.
While many migrant employees do not want to permanently settle in mining towns, but prefer to maintain their homes in the rural areas and return to them, mining houses are focusing on promoting home ownership and encouraging employees to buy their own houses by rolling out programmes to educate their employees on the benefits of home ownership, in line with the Mining Charter. Chamber of Mines employment relations head Motsamai Motlhamme says that the mining industry is exploring alternatives to current labour and work practices to address the concern around dual families. “Key to this solution is exploring alternative shift arrangements and different shift cycles.” This would enable employees to return home and spend time with their families more frequently and for longer periods and carries with it the hope of discouraging dual families. “It is the mining industry’s view that the benefits of a better-housed workforce include greater labour stability and improved productivity,” says Motlhamme. However, a 2015 Department of Mineral Resources report on compliance with the Mining Charter indicated that the drive to improve the living standards of mineworkers had not been fully realised.
Read this report in full at Mining Weekly
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page