BusinessLive reports that the Department of Labour says increasing minimum wages as a countermeasure to poverty and inequality could reduce the number of strikes in SA.
The 2016 Industrial Action report, released on Thursday, found that the labour market had experienced a 4.7% hike in working days lost to strikes compared with 2015. This meant that the labour economy lost R161m due to the work stoppages, which were mainly over wages, bonuses and other demands linked to compensation, affecting in the main the community, manufacturing and transport industries. In February, employers and trade unions made an undertaking to implement the Code of Good Practice: Collective Bargaining, Industrial Action and Picketing, as a means of shifting the tone of collective bargaining and industrial conflict in SA.
- Read this report by Theto Mahlakoana in full at BusinessLive
- Read too, Over 940,000 working days lost to strikes in 2016, at SA Govt News Agency
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page