Today's Labour News

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY

Another attack on an ambulance crew in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday

ANA reports that the Eastern Cape health department on Wednesday condemned the latest attack on an ambulance crew in Port Elizabeth.  Department spokesman, Sizwe Kupelo said the paramedics and a student, who was an intern with the crew, were accosted and robbed of a cellphone by two unknown armed men on Tuesday.  They were attacked while waiting for the traffic light to turn green at the Daku Road and Seyisi Street, in Port Elizabeth.  At the time of the attack, the crew had been traveling from Motherwell with patients.  Fortunately, no one was injured.  Kupelo noted:  “While no physical harm was inflicted on the crew, such uncalled for attacks on emergency medical services members, are continuing unabated.”  Kupelo said ambulance crews were targeted on a weekly basis and the department hoped police would treat such cases with urgency.  Just over a week ago, Nelson Mandela Bay paramedics were attacked and robbed in Joe Slovo.  Members of the crew, one of whom was injured when the driver’s side window of the ambulance was smashed, were treated for their injuries and received counselling for their ordeal.

Read the original of the above report on page 6 of The Star of 26 September 2019

INDUSTRIAL ACTION / STRIKES

Labour Court interdicts Sasbo’s banking sector strike planned for Friday

BusinessLive reports that the Labour Court has interdicted Friday’s planned strike to shut down the country’s banking sector.  Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker indicated on Thursday she would provide her reasons for granting the interdict in due course.  Business Unity SA (Busa) sought to stop thousands of members of finance union Sasbo from going ahead with the planned action.  Lawyers representing Busa, labour federation Cosatu and Sasbo battled it out in court on Wednesday in their efforts to convince Rabkin-Naicker to rule in their favour.  Busa argued the protest would not help address the realities affecting the banking industry and “will further burden the economy and deter investment”.

Read the original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive. Read too, Bank strike will hurt the economy, Banking Association warns, at The Citizen

Cosatu, Sasbo to lodge urgent appeal after Friday’s banking sector strike interdicted by Labour Court

EWN reports that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and finance union Sasbo on Thursday said they would be appealing the Labour Court ruling interdicting a planned banking sector strike on Friday.  The court application was brought by Business Unity SA (Busa), which argued that the correct channels were not followed for permission to embark on the nationwide action.  Workers in the banking sector had wanted to protest about sector job losses.  Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali described the Labour Court outcome as a bad judgment and said they would not only appeal the ruling but also resubmit another Section 77 (protest action) application because the problems plaguing workers, especially in the finance sector, had not gone away.  He insisted that the federation had done everything correctly as per Nedlac protocols for acquiring a Section 77 strike certificate and even noted that Nedlac had confirmed that the federation was compliant.

Read the full original of the above report by Thando Kubheka & Theto Mahlakoana at EWN. Read too, Cosatu and Sasbo set to appeal interdict halting planned bank strike, at TimesLIVE

Other internet posting(s) in this news category

• Court stops banking strike, Cosatu warns workers shouldn't risk their jobs by staying away, at Fin24

MINING LABOUR

Strike threat grows as Sibanye-Stillwater cuts platinum jobs

BL Premium writes that the likelihood of Sibanye-Stillwater, the world’s largest platinum miner, facing another crippling strike at its mines increased after it indicated it would lay off up to 5,270 people at the Lonmin assets it now owns.  Meantime, Sibanye is in wage talks with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the dominant union at its Rustenburg mines and those at Lonmin, which are now collectively called Marikana.  Amcu said on Wednesday it had received notification of the restructuring to remove nearly a fifth of the 26,568 jobs at Marikana.  Amcu, which has already declared a dispute in the platinum wage talks with Sibanye, fiercely opposed the company’s takeover of Lonmin, arguing the merger would result in large job losses.  It has also been critical of Sibanye’s proposed wage offer for employees at Marikana.  Sibanye said it was closing the East 1, West 1 and Hossy shafts as well as halting opencast mining, stopping two concentrators and removing duplicated jobs in the merged companies.  The cuts will come as a moratorium on retrenchments expires in December.  Trade union Solidarity was brutal in its assessment of the restructuring Sibanye was undertaking, laying the blame squarely on Amcu’s 2014 strike, which crippled Lonmin’s balance sheet irreparably, and on the management style of Magara.  "Magara was more focused on keeping Amcu happy than focusing on the mines’ sustainability and effective management," Solidarity’s Gideon du Plessis said.  The mining sector lost 36,000 jobs in the second quarter, according to Statistics SA.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

Union outrage as Sibanye plans to axe more than 5,270 jobs

Business Report writes that Sibanye-Stillwater intends to take advantage of the lapse in December of the six-month moratorium on retrenchments after its merger with Lonmin and axe more than 5,000 workers.  The precious metals producer announced on Wednesday that it would cut more than 5,270 jobs (3,904 employees and 1,366 contractors) at its Marikana operation and associated services, which were previously under Lonmin in North West province.  Unions on Wednesday slammed the jobs bloodbath.  Sibanye spokesperson James Wellsted said the notice meant that the miner would now enter into a 60-day engagement with stakeholders, including unions, with the hope of finding constructive ways to avoid large job losses.  The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said on Wednesday that it was processing the notice and supporting documents sent as part of the rationale for the possible retrenchment.  “For now, we emphasise that this notice again clearly shows the principle of profit over people,” Amcu said.  National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson, Livhuwani Mammburu, also confirmed that the union had received a section 189 (consultation) notice from Sibanye.  The Department of Mineral Resources said it was “disheartening” to hear of potential job losses at Sibanye in these tough economic times when the country is faced with increased unemployment.

Read the full original of the above report by Siphelele Dludla at Business Report

BHP approached Anglo American chief Mark Cutifani to run for its CEO role

Bloomberg reports that the BHP Group has talked to Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani about running for the top job at the diversified miner, according to sources familiar with the matter.  BHP apparently made the approaches earlier this year and again more recently.  Cutifani has rebuffed the company’s advances so far.  While BHP favors an internal hire, it also wants to speak with external candidates, the sources said.  Cutifani has said in previous interviews he planned to stay until Anglo finished its Peruvian copper project Quellaveco, which may start production in 2022, by which time he will be in his mid-60s.  There has been speculation for years about who might take the reins of BHP, the world’s biggest mining company, once Andrew Mackenzie steps down, possibly in 2020 when he will have been in the post for seven years.  Melbourne-based BHP is the biggest company in Australia, but it hasn’t had an Australian-born boss since merging with Billiton in 2001.  Cutifani, who hails from Australia and has a background in mining engineering, has overseen one of the industry’s most successful turnaround stories in the past five years at Anglo.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly

SOEs IN CRISIS

Pilots at SAA will down tools if that’s what’s needed to save the broke airline

BL Premium reports that pilots at SA Airways (SAA) say they are willing to embark on a lawful strike to save the indebted national carrier.  SAA Pilots Association (Saapa) chair Grant Back said on Thursday that their intention was not to add to the SAA’s problems.  On the contrary, “our goal is to put an end to the continual pressure on the fiscus in the form of bailouts and guarantees and, ultimately, to help put the airline on the road to recovery.”  The airline has amassed more than R18bn of losses since 2015 and is seeking about R22bn in government bailouts over the next three years.  In June, Saapa began the process of canvassing its members on their perception of management at SAA.  The survey was carried out by an independent service provider and a total of 516 of the 635 (81%) pilots responded.  The findings showed that 91% of pilots said operations management was “poor” to “extremely poor”, 96% were in favour of taking a “proactive stand” to force change at the airline and 90% backed protected industrial action to enforce a higher standard within SAA.  “It needs to be understood that the decision to embark on industrial action is not one that the pilots of SAA will take lightly,” said Back.  He added however that the pilots and Saapa leadership could not allow the airline to continue as if it was business as usual.  “The bottom line is that SAA will not recover unless critical operational and technical deficiencies are immediately addressed by a strong leadership team,” Back said.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Bekezela Phakathi at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

Other internet posting(s) in this news category

• Eskom’s CEO shortlist reportedly includes a former CEO, Shell executive, at Fin24

REMUNERATION

SA salary growth in first quarter far below inflation

Fin24 reports that according to the SA Reserve Bank’s quarterly bulletin released on Wednesday, SA workers are seeing meagre pay increases that do not keep up with inflation.  Private sector workers saw their pay grow by only 1.0% - an all-time low - in the first quarter of 2019, compared to the year before.  This was far below inflation, which measured 4.3% in August.  This means wages are not keeping pace with inflation and living costs are rising faster than salaries.  The first quarter of 2019 was also the third successive quarter of shrinking nominal remuneration growth.  After reaching 5.1% in the second quarter of 2018 it has all been downhill.  Wage hikes for those who are part of collective bargaining agreements decreased to their lowest levels since the second quarter of 2007.  The average wage hike as a result of collective bargaining was recorded at 6.9% in the first half of 2019 - the lowest level in 12 years.  The average wage hike last year, by contrast, was 7.2%.  Nominal remuneration in the public sector, meanwhile, grew by 10% in the first quarter of 2019, up from 7.0% in the fourth quarter.  The Reserve Bank noted that the number of working days lost due to strikes doubled to 1.1 million in the first half of 2019, from 550,000 in the first half of 2018.  In total, 1.95 million working days were lost to strikes in 2018.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Fin24

Small decline in workers’ average take-home wages in August

Business Report writes that the latest BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index (BTPI), released on Wednesday, showed that there was a small decline in the average take-home pay for August on a year-on-year basis.  The data showed that real take-home pay was at R14,385, a 0.2% decline.  “The decline in the BTPI is due to the late and backdated increases of public servants’ wages last year.  As the civil service make up around 30 percent of the BTPI, late salary adjustments and the subsequent backdated increases influence the data somewhat,” explained well-known economist Mike Schüssler.  “The slight decline is, therefore, overstated, we expect take-home pay to increase ever so slightly in the next few months,” said Schüssler.  The overall salary movement reflected massive increases, followed by substantial declines caused by delayed salary increases by the government.  Extended salary negotiations by sectors such as mining or electricity also contributed to these movements.

Read the full original of the above report by Philippa Larkin at Business Report

RETRENCHMENTS / JOB LOSSES

ArcelorMittal SA may close some of its South African plants and retrench over 2,000 workers

Fin24 reports that in a statement on Wednesday, ArcelorMittal SA (Amsa) announced that it might close some of its operations.  The company, which supplies more than 60% of the steel used in SA, has operations in Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging, Saldanha and Newcastle.  Local steel consumption is at its lowest levels in a decade – currently 30% lower than in 2007 – which has hit Amsa.  The company said in a statement that it was currently reviewing the "operational and financial sustainability of certain of its major operating sites, individual plants and production areas".  This will exclude its commercial coke operations, and won’t impact its planned acquisition of the Highveld Structural Mill.  The company is already in talks with employees about possible retrenchments.  It indicated that those consultations should be finalised by the fourth quarter of 2019.  More than 2,000 of the company’s 8,700 employees may be affected by the retrenchments, with Numsa warning that even more workers were at risk.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Fin24

SA lost 30,000 construction jobs over the past year

News24Wire reports that new numbers released by Statistics SA show a bloodbath in construction jobs over the past months, while the mining sector is steadily employing more people – for now.  The Quarterly Employment Statistics survey for the second quarter of the year showed that almost 10.2-million people were employed in the second quarter, 2,000 fewer than in the first quarter of the year – but 141,000 more than a year ago.  In the past quarter to end-June alone, 16,000 jobs were lost in the construction sector, meaning that there are now 30,000 fewer workers in the construction industry than a year ago.  But community services (including civil servants, health workers as well as part-time workers for the elections this year) and the mining industry reported increases of 44,000 and 3,000 jobs respectively over the past quarter.  But, mining job cuts are looming, particularly at Sibanye-Stillwater.  The manufacturing industry saw a sharp 15,000 drop in jobs in the past quarter compared to the first quarter of the year.  It employed 1,000 fewer people in June 2019 compared with June 2018.

Read the original of the above report at Mining Weekly

Other internet posting(s) in this news category

• Tribunal approves Milco SA’s acquisition of Clover subject to no retrenchments, at Business Report

MISCONDUCT / DISCIPLINARY ACTION

'Drunk' Ekurhuleni metro cop was suspended, but was never arrested and no blood tests done

News24 reports that an Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) traffic officer, who was filmed while allegedly inebriated on duty, was never arrested, nor were any blood tests taken.  The incident happened at Rynfield Terrace in Benoni on Tuesday.  The video shows the metro officer sitting in an EMPD vehicle, while members of the public note that the officer is "drunk as hell" and that he has alcohol in the vehicle.  The officer, who appears disorientated, struggles to hand over his service pistol to another EMPD official in the video.  The officer is eventually escorted from the scene by another official, but apparently refused to do a breathalyser test.  It was earlier reported that the metro officer and his supervisor had been suspended, but it has since emerged that the official who helped the metro officer leave the scene has also been suspended.  "It is alleged that there are two other officials who defeated the ends of justice and deliration of duty by aiding the metro traffic officer to escape from the scene without being processed.  Consequently, the process of taking blood samples and arrest of the suspect was never done," Ekurhuleni spokesperson Nhlanhla Cebekhulu said.  Earlier on Wednesday, Ekhurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina confirmed the suspensions in a tweet.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Alex Mitchley at News24. See too, 'Drunk' EMPD officer and his supervisor suspended, at TimesLIVE

OTHER REPORTS

Department of Employment and Labour materially underspent budget by R196m in 2018-19

The Star reports that despite maintaining its unqualified audit opinion, the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) underspent its budget by R196 million in the 2018-19 financial year.  “The department materially underspent the budget by R196,176,000 on appropriation per programme,” Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu revealed in his report submitted to Parliament.  In 2017-18 the department had underspent its budget by R211m.  In 2018-19, the department’s administration underspent by R76m, inspection and enforcement services by R43m, public employment services by R62m, and labour and industrial relations services by R13m.  Director-general Thobile Lamati blamed the underspending on internal promotions and vacant posts.  He also blamed it on the delay in the delivery of ICT equipment for inspectors and provinces, as well as the delay in promulgating the National Minimum Wage Act.  He said the action to be taken to avoid recurrence of the audit finding would be to fill the vacant posts.  Among other findings, Makwetu noted that department had not taken disciplinary action against officials who had incurred irregular expenditure, the majority of which was caused by the non-adherence to procurement and contract management regulations.  DEL Minister Thulas Nxesi noted that the department had met the annual performance target with an 80% score and that the planning process would seek to further improve on the annual performance.

Read the full original of the above report by Mayibongwe Maqhina on page 24 of The Star of 26 September 2019