In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 24 August 2018.
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Two police officers killed on Friday in separate incidents in KZN and Gauteng News24 reports that police have initiated a the 72-hour Activation Plan to track down the killers of two police officers who were killed in separate incidents in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng, respectively, on Friday afternoon. The KZN based constable was killed while conducting an operation at the KwaMashu Hostel. A police spokesperson said in a statement: "The members heard gunshot sounds emanating from the informal settlement within the hostel and proceeded to investigate. Two suspects were spotted and two police officers chased after them. The suspects opened fire at the police officers, wounding a 28-year-old member and the 36-year-old constable." His Gauteng colleague was shot and killed after intervening in a robbery in progress in the Malvern area of Johannesburg. "It is alleged that the police saw one of the suspects fleeing the scene and the 36-year-old member chased after the suspect on foot. The member was fatally shot at the corner of David and Mars streets," a spokesperson indicated. Read this report by Alex Mitchley in full at News24. Read too, Police condemn killing of two police officers in Gauteng and KZN, at eNCA Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Sibanye Gold says union wage demands may lead to more shaft closures Bloomberg reports that the struggling gold mining sector would be forced to close more mine shafts if labour unions’ wage demands were implemented, according to the top producer of the precious metal. The largest union in the gold industry, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), last week said it was deadlocked over pay with producers, including Sibanye Gold, AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold, after a number of rounds of talks. Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said on Thursday: “You can get quick wins from negotiations but then we end up having to close shafts and businesses - that’s not in the national interest. Their demands will lead to shaft closures.” Sibanye, which employs more than 40,000 workers at its gold mining operations in SA, was not generating cash, Froneman claimed. “A strike is not going to intimidate us - it never has and never will, it’s not the right mechanism to resolve these issues. We are flexible within the constraints of the business. The unions haven’t moved at all, they need to be flexible,” Froneman observed. Read this report by Felix Njini in full at Fin24 Lily Mine disaster report recommends prosecution City Press reports that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has submitted a report to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) that contains recommendations for prosecution related to the mine accident that killed three workers at Lily mine in Mpumalanga in 2016. The ultimate decision on whether to prosecute or not rests with the NDPP. A DMR spokesperson declined to say whom the DMR had recommended for prosecution, while the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) said it was studying the matter and could not say who could face the law if it decided to proceed with prosecution. Two reports have been produced by the DMR, namely a safety report which delves into the Lily mine accident in terms of the Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA) and a prosecution report that contains recommendations for prosecution. In February 2016, an entrance at Lily mine’s shaft collapsed and buried three workers: Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda. They were working in a container, serving as a lamp-room, which plunged underground. The 76 workers who had previously entered the shaft were rescued. The safety report has dashed any hope that the bodies of the three workers can be recovered. It makes scathing findings against Lily mine management and notes the fact that there had been 10 pillar collapses of falls of the ground that had occurred before the February 2016 accident, which mine management did not report to the DMR’s principal inspector of mines. Read this report by Sizwe Sama Yende in full at Fin24 Implats job cuts will have ‘devastating’ impact on Rustenburg mining community City Press reports that the looming mass retrenchments at Impala Platinum’s (Implats’) Rustenburg mines are already causing panic among businesses in the local community. The job cuts, which the company says will see 13,000 workers being offloaded along with five shaft closures, will come only a few years after the area was brought to its knees by the country’s costliest wage strike in the mining sector. In 2014 the majority union at Implats, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), staged a five-month strike over wages and that disaster is still fresh in the community’s memory. The strike was one of the costliest in the history of the platinum sector and the majority of businesses have not fully recovered from that period. According to Liau Matale, a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) leader who is also a training instructor at Implats, the retrenchments will have a devastating outcome for the mine community. Recalling how the residents of the mine’s hostels have not recovered from the 2014 strike, Matale said the eventual losers would be the community as crime would skyrocket. He claimed that some of the hostels were full of criminals and prostitution was rife, so the upcoming retrenchments were bound to spell disaster within the mine compounds and nearby communities. Matale dismissed the idea that strike action might be a viable option to pressure the mine from retrenching. “No one will go for a strike I can tell you that. The repercussions of that will last for at least five years. People felt the pain of that 2014 strike,” he observed. Read this report by Lesetja Malope in full at Fin24. Read too, Rustenburg’s rise stifled by losses, at Fin24 Other labour / community posting(s) relating to mining
Cosatu to decide on admission of new union affiliates Diamond Fields Advertiser reports that delegates to Cosatu’s upcoming national congress in September are expected to decide on whether to add more affiliates to the federation’s more than a dozen trade unions. Among the potential new affiliates is the Agriculture, Food and Allied Democratic Workers’ Union (Afadwu), a breakaway from the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu), which abandoned the country’s biggest federation two years ago. Fawu, with about 124,000 members, is now the SA Federation of Trade Unions’ (Saftu’s) second biggest affiliate. Afadwu’s interim general secretary is Thupudi Mabunele, who was formerly the principal officer of Fawu’s provident fund. He indicated that Afadwu intended replacing Fawu as Cosatu’s affiliate in the food sector including farms, nurseries, retail, fishing, food processing and beverage manufacturing industries. Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said there were a number of unions that had applied to be admitted as affiliates, including Afadwu and the SA Emergency Personnel’s Union (Saepu). He indicated that there were a number of considerations to be made before the potential affiliates were accepted, including avoiding competition among affiliates. Read this report by Loyiso Sidimba in full at DFA
Joburg ends contract with OUTsurance and TFF pointsmen for its own traffic wardens News24 reports that the City of Johannesburg has announced that it has decided not to renew a contract which provided privately-sponsored pointsmen at traffic hotspots. The city's public safety spokesperson, councillor Michael Sun, said in a statement last week that the last day of the contract would be on Friday. “This comes as Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) upgraded its function and appointed an additional 180 Traffic Wardens who will be deployed to ensure that traffic continues to be managed efficiently. This process is part of JMPD's legislative and core mandate to ensure a free-traffic flow while ensuring drive, passenger and pedestrian safety," Sun indicated. The decision was met with disappointment by OUTsurance and Traffic FreeFlow (TFF). OUTsurance CEO Danie Matthee said the announcement caught them off guard. TFF CEO Bheki Zondo observed: "The pointsmen project was dubbed as one of Joburg’s most successful public private partnerships and we are extremely proud of all of the brave pointsmen and women who have delivered this hugely loved service. Read this report by Jenna Etheridge in full at News24
Report shows that 80% of labour broker workers should have been deemed to be permanent City Press reports that an astonishing 80% of labour broker workers were on contracts with a duration of more than three months when the contentious “deeming” provision in the Labour Relations Act came into force in 2015. Those with contracts longer than a year made up 26% of all broker workers. With a watershed Constitutional Court ruling last month confirming that the provision concerned makes the client the “sole” employer, the future of labour brokering is once again in question. A paper presented at the annual African Review of Economics and Finance conference, held at Wits Business School last week, used an SA Revenue Service (SARS) database to investigate the controversial sector’s “wage penalty”. The 474,161 workers who showed up in income tax records as working for labour brokers earned, on average, 30% less than workers who were employed directly, according to the paper’s authors. This wage penalty consisted almost entirely of the lack of benefits – such as medical aid or provident funds – for labour broker workers. If benefits were excluded, the difference in pay fell to 6%. There have been many conflicting estimates of the size of the labour broker sector, with industry sources giving numbers as divergent as 1 million and 600,000. The SARS data, which excluded anyone earning less than R2,000 a month, showed about 475,000 brokered workers in 2014. The data apparently also showed that there had been a sharp reaction to the deeming provision, despite its legal interpretation having been fought in the courts up until July this year. The 2016 SARS data will soon be available and it will likely reflect more contraction in labour brokering. Read this report by Dewald Van Rensburg in full at Fin24
Unions brace for fight with Eskom over job reductions Business Report writes that Eskom’s intention to cut 7,000 jobs through natural attrition will bring it perilously in contact with a live wire as affiliated trade unions threaten to short-circuit its operations with running strike action. The job bombshell also comes at a tense time during protracted wage negotiations with unions. Eskom senior manager Marion Hughes’s announcement this week that the power utility intended to reduce the headcount from 48,678 to 41,613 by 2023 across all levels through normal attrition has sent the wrong buzz to unions. A spokesperson confirmed that Hughes was referring to natural attrition and that there were no plans to retrench staff. “We call upon all workers in the country to unite and embark on a mammoth battle against this cancer. We will resist any attempt by Eskom to retrench 7,000 workers who are currently facing dire economic conditions,” said Paris Mashego of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Solidarity’s Tommy Wedderspoon said they had been informed by Eskom of the intention to reduce the number of employees through natural attrition, which was “better than a situation where people lose their jobs via retrenchments.” Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said: “Eskom has not communicated this message in the proper structure, which is the strategic forum. It is outrageous that we are hearing through the media that this is what they intend to do.” Numsa treasurer Mphumzi Maqungo stated: “As Numsa, we will use all the necessary methods to defend our members. We don’t believe this thing can be addressed by retrenching workers.” Read this report by Luyolo Mkentane in full at Business Report CWU laments that communication sector workers face losing their jobs due to state capture BusinessLive reports that Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said on Friday that workers in the communications sector faced widespread retrenchments as a result of state capture He said the effects of state capture were being felt particularly at the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)‚ where workers were not getting salary increases‚ and at television news channel Afro Worldview (formerly ANN7)‚ where there would be job losses as a result of the likely closure of the former Gupta-owned channel. Tshabalala made these comments during the SA Communist Party’s (SACP’s) march to the state capture commission of inquiry in Parktown‚ Johannesburg‚ to show support for the commission’s work. The commission began its work last Monday. SACP first deputy general secretary‚ Solly Mapaila‚ said the party was at the commission to give its full support. "No one will run away from corruption in this country and we want to retrieve billions stolen as a result of state capture‚" Mapaila said. SACP Gauteng secretary Jacob Mamabolo read out a memorandum and the secretary of the commission, Khotso de Wee, was on hand to receive it. Read this report by Ernest Mabuza in full at BusinessLive
Solidarity members at Sasol’s Secunda plant vote to strike over exclusion of whites from scheme ANA reports that a total of 83% of Solidarity members at Sasol in Secunda in Mpumalanga have voted in favour of a strike to protest the exclusion of white employees from the company’s employee share ownership plan. On Monday, Solidarity members at the petrochemical giant’s Sasolburg plants will get the opportunity to exercise their strike vote. The trade union indicated on Sunday that support for the strike has been overwhelming, “which is indicative of the levels of frustration that are prevailing among our members.” According to the union, a strike would be the first time in South African history that white employees would take industrial action because of exclusion based on race. In addition to the strike, Solidarity is also planning a national protest which people nationwide can join." Sasol has announced an empowerment scheme, known as Khanyisa, in terms of which its black employees would get shares worth R500,000. Khanyisa will succeed the Inzalo Scheme, which reportedly failed financially. According to Solidarity, Inzalo had been inclusive of white employees. Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said Sasol’s new scheme was in direct conflict with the mining charter and the practice in the industry. “This scheme is an inflexible scheme only aimed at scoring B-BBEE points. It is not about empowerment of the workers; it is about the commercial value of a score card,” Hermann stated. Read this report in full at IOL News. Read Solidarity’s press statement in this regard at Solidarity News Cosatu furious over exclusion of gender and LGBTQI rights from Traditional Courts Bill Saturday Citizen reports that the ANC has come under sharp criticism from its ally the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) for excluding all gender and gay and lesbian rights protection clauses from the Traditional Courts Bill. Cosatu has called for the Bill, which is presently before Parliament, to be halted while giving time for consultation on the omitted clauses that the federation demanded be reinstated. The federation said that as it stood, the Bill was fatally flawed and simply unconstitutional. Cosatu vowed to engage President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC, ministers of justice and of women, the speaker and chief whip in parliament to intervene as a matter of urgency. Ironically, the legislation was earlier rejected by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for not catering for the rights of women and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning and intersex community (LGBTQI). Cosatu’s parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks, lashed out at ANC parliamentarians in the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services for being behind the move to remove the gender and human rights protection clause. The Bill initially contained crucial concessions, mainly suggested by civil society organisations during their interaction with the justice ministry, that protected the rights of women and LGBTQI people, including the right to opt out of traditional courts, and protection of the rights of both men and women who did not want a traditional court imposed upon them. Read more of this report by Eric Naki at SA Labour News. Read Cosatu’s press statement in this regard at Cosatu News Other internet posting(s) in this news category
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