Today's Labour News

TOP STORY - UNEMPLOYMENT

SA’s unemployment rate climbed to 34.9% in third quarter

BusinessLive reports that unemployment in SA continued to accelerate in the third quarter, reaching 34.9%, up from 34.4% in the preceding three months. Presenting the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the third quarter on Tuesday, statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said the number of employed people fell by 660,000 in the three months to end-September to 14.3-million, while the number of unemployed people decreased by 183,000 to 7.6-million.   He advised that the number of discouraged job seekers increased by 545,000 (16.4%), while the number of people who were not economically active “for reasons other than discouragement” increased by 443,000 (3.3%) between the two quarters, “resulting in a net increase of 988,000 in the not economically active population”.   Maluleke went on to indicate:   “These changes resulted in the unemployment rate increasing by 0.5 of a percentage point from 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021 to 34.9% in the third quarter of 2021 — the highest since the start of the QLFS in 2008. Unemployment as measured by the expanded definition increased by 2.2 percentage points to 46.6% in the third quarter of 2021 compared with the second quarter of 2021.” During the period under review, employment decreased by 571,000 (5.6%) in the formal sector, by 65,000 (5.4%) in private households, and by 32,000 (3.8%) in agriculture. Informal sector employment increased by 9,000 (0.3%).

Read the original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive. Read too, Unemployment rate hits new record high at 34.9%, at Engineering News

Unemployment data shows heavy toll in Gauteng and KZN of Zuma-inspired violence

BL Premium reports that SA’s latest unemployment data, which shows the country’s joblessness crisis worsening to a new record, also reveals the costs of the violence and looting that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng in July. The provinces accounted for more than half of the 660,000 jobs lost during the third quarter of 2021. The national unemployment rate climbed to 34.9% from what had already been a record 34.4% in the previous three months. Unemployment as measured by the expanded definition, which includes those who have stopped searching for work, rose to 46.6%. During the third quarter, the largest employment decrease was recorded in Gauteng, which was down 200,092 to 4.4-million employed people. KwaZulu-Natal recorded a decrease of 123,000 to 2.2-million. Characterised as a failed insurrection by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the violence saw shops, warehouses, factories, pharmacies and malls stripped bare and set alight. Many business people indicated that they would not be able to rebuild, meaning a significant portion of the jobs lost will not return in an economy that was already battered by the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdowns — which led to a 6.4% drop in GDP during 2020. Economists at Nedbank said the unemployment numbers indicated the economic recovery so far had not supported job creation, with all industries well below pre-pandemic levels. “The outlook for the job market remains poor,” they wrote.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only). Read too, South Africa bleeds jobs as riots take toll on commercial hubs, at Moneyweb

Solidarity wants labour regulations leading to rising unemployment scrapped

Solidarity expressed its concern on Tuesday about the latest labour figures announced by Statistics SA. According to the latest data, less than one quarter of the country’s population currently has a job. It is the trade union’s belief that the government’s labour regulations are largely responsible and it wants these regulations to be scrapped. According to Stats SA, the number of employed people decreased from 14.9 million in the second quarter to 14.3 million in the third quarter. “It is time for the government to reconsider all forms of regulation in the labour market. The minimum wage and BEE regulations should be scrapped immediately, and it should be easier to employ workers. The regulations are strangling the economy and exacerbating the unemployment crisis,” said Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at Solidarity. He went on to comment: “It is time for the labour market to be liberated to save the youth.   An entire generation is currently being deprived of the opportunity to gain work experience. For people between 25 and 34, the extended unemployment rate now stands at 62%. The number of discouraged job seekers is also increasing drastically. It is simply unsustainable to keep these people dependent on the state. The government must step down and give experts in the private sector the space to stimulate growth in the economy and employ more people.”

Read the full original of Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News

PRICES

Automobile Association says December fuel price disaster is ‘entirely home grown’

BusinessLive reports that fuel prices went through the roof on Wednesday, but the price of oil played almost no part. This is according to the Automobile Association (AA), which was commenting on price increases announced by the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE) on Monday and which come into effect at midnight on Tuesday. The association said the increases again pointed to the need for an urgent investigation and recalculation of the current fuel pricing model and its existing elements. Petrol across all grades rose by 81c/l, crashing through the R20/l barrier for the first time to reach R20.13 for a litre of 93ULP and R20.35 for 95ULP.   Diesel will rise by as much as 75c/l, and illuminating paraffin by 42c/l. “This price disaster is entirely home grown. Internationally, oil prices have pulled back from their recent highs and Brent crude is currently trading around $75 a barrel. The majority of this month’s under-recovery is because of the weakening of the rand against the US dollar,” the AA noted. It said that while the rand had lost value against the dollar after the discovery of the Omicron variant, the underlying weakness was a continuation of a trend that began with the midyear riots and looting. “The increases year on year since December 2020 are astronomical.   Petrol has increased by more than 40%, diesel by around 44%, and illuminating paraffin by more than 70%.   Wages and salaries have not kept pace with these heavy increases, and consumers will undoubtedly be under more financial pressure because of the knock-on effects on other products,” the AA commented.

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

Latest fuel prices are unsustainable, says Solidarity

On Tuesday Solidarity expressed its opposition to the latest fuel price levies and emphasised the unsustainability thereof. This followed a further sharp rise in fuel prices announced on Monday. According to the trade union, the latest fuel levy, together with new travel restrictions against SA that will paralyse the tourism industry and generally bad economic conditions, may be the last straw that will “break the camel’s back”. Solidarity is of the view that consumers will simply no longer be able to keep up. “It is time for the consumer, the ordinary citizen, to be put first by our government.   People need to be able to go to work and buy food. Rising fuel prices are making consumers increasingly poorer. The government must abandon its price conspiracy between itself and the fuel dealers,” said Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at Solidarity. He emphasised that Solidarity would continue to fight for the deregulation of all forms of fuel, specifically petrol. He also advised that Solidarity had recently written to the Minister of Finance, as well as the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, demanding that the fuel levy be reduced and that the prices of petrol and diesel be left to the market at all levels “We ask again that the minister will heed our call. We are consulting with our legal team. We are also busy with a report on government mandated price-fixing, which we will use as foundation to continue the fight for cheaper fuel next year,” Du Buisson indicated.

Read the full original of Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News

Higher food prices in store for SA consumers in 2022

Members of the Agricultural Economics Association of SA write that with various product prices rising rapidly across the globe as the world opens up after months of lockdown, food prices have been in the headlines and SA is no exception. As a case in point, consumer food price inflation averaged 6.6% over the past 10 months, compared with 4.5% in 2020.   For a society like SA, where food constitutes a significant share of spending for poor households, a rise in prices is always concerning. The authors point out that it is critical to understand if the recent increases are temporary or could persist. In that context, they look in detail into the products that have been at the core of the rise in SA food basket prices over the past year. Meat, grains and vegetable oils have been the major drivers.   They expect that many of the fundamental factors that underpinned meat price trends, both in the global and local markets, will persist into 2022, but their effect on further price growth could moderate. For grains and oilseeds, the authors say that most of the factors that resulted in rapid price growth will persist over the medium term. Further broad-based factors that contributed to inflation across most of the subcategories in the food inflation basket included delays and high costs in global shipping, rapid increases in local electricity costs combined with inefficient electricity distribution, and rising fuel costs.  Locally, load-shedding and infrastructure issues have, in turn, affected manufacturing and distribution costs, which resulted in significant cost pressures in local supply chains. The authors’ view is that these challenges will continue to factor into inflation in 2022. They draw the following conclusion: “We look to 2022 with a sense of caution that consumer food prices could remain elevated. While the pace of price increases might soften, households could remain under pressure for a while as the world and local supply chains adjust.”

Read the full original of the opinion piece in the above regard by Tracy Davids, Marlene Louw, Wandile Sihlobo and Melissa Van Der Merwe at BusinessLive

COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Discovery’s mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy sees take-up surge to 94%

BL Premium reports that the Covid-19 vaccination rate among Discovery’s SA employees has risen from barely a fifth to 94% in the three months since it announced plans to make jabs compulsory from 1 January 2022.   Health and life insurer Discovery was one of the first JSE-listed companies to introduce a mandatory vaccination policy and was swiftly followed by a growing number of firms that now include private hospital groups Mediclinic and Life Healthcare, and insurers Sanlam and Old Mutual. Several universities have followed suit, including Wits, UCT, the University of the Western Cape and the University of the Free State. “We are an organisation that believes in incentives. But when you have [so much] misinformation, I don’t think incentives work. You need regulation. Hence the mandate,” Discovery CEO Adrian Gore explained on Tuesday. He added that the company was working hard to persuade staff who had objected to vaccination to change their minds, but accepted that some might ultimately leave the company. “That’s inevitable. We are saving lives. We have to do the right thing,” he stated. As of Friday, 583 of Discovery’s 9,919 SA-based employees had yet to get vaccinated, of whom 246 said they planned to do so and 337 had formally objected.   Covid-19 has already led to 15,000 deaths among members of schemes administered by Discovery Health, and has killed 22 Discovery employees.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (subscriber access only). Read too, Almost 95% of Discovery’s staff have received the Covid-19 vaccine, at Moneyweb

Sactwu reports 74% Covid-19 vaccination rate amongst users of clothing union’s clinics

GroundUp reports that the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) has reported that 74% of users of the union’s clinics are vaccinated against Covid, which is more than double the national average. The union indicated in a statement that 25,107 people registered in the union clinic system had received their vaccines, out of a total of 33,906 people. In February 2021, Sactwu released a ten-point plan to promote vaccination against Covid, which included educating shop stewards and workers on the benefits of vaccination, dispelling popular anti-vaccination myths, and using the union and factory clinics to administer vaccines to workers. Then in April, Sactwu and clothing employers signed a Covid-19 Vaccination Rollout Campaign Framework Agreement, which set out a plan to encourage vaccination among clothing and textile workers. The goal was to reach an “industry immunity target”, namely an 80% worker vaccination rate. According to Sactwu general secretary André Kriel, 320 Sactwu members have been admitted to hospital with Covid, and 56 have died from Covid-related causes.   Of the hospital admissions, 92% were unvaccinated workers and just 1% were fully vaccinated. None of those who died from Covid-related causes were fully vaccinated. On 29 November, labour federation Cosatu, to which Sactwu is affiliated, announced support for workplace vaccination mandates, citing fears among vaccinated workers that their unvaccinated colleagues were endangering their colleagues.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by James Stent at GroundUp

Public sector unions refuse to support mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations

Fin24 reports that while labour federation Cosatu now supports mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policies, unions in the public sector are resisting compulsory jabs in workplaces and public areas.   The Public Servants Association (PSA), the SA Policing Union (Sapu) and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) have all confirmed that they would oppose mandatory vaccinations. The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) is still deciding on its position. On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that a task team had been established to consult about making vaccination mandatory for specific activities and locations. "We have taken a decision that we will not support another lockdown so if the only other option is mandatory vaccination, we will not oppose it," said Cosatu’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla earlier this week. He stressed that workers must not be victimised in the vaccination process. The PSA’s Reuben Maleka noted that the union has called on its members to get the Covid-19 vaccination – but warned that jabs should not be mandatory for public servants. Maleka said that vaccination should be totally voluntary as many South Africans were "still afraid about the effects" of the vaccine and making vaccination mandatory would add to this anxiety. Popcru’s Richard Mamabolo said there was great concern for government encroachment on individual rights. "It is our firm belief that no employee should be forced to vaccinate, as that will be against their rights and Sapu will explore all legalities around this matter in order to protect our members," Sapu’s Lesiba Thobakgale indicated.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24

Other internet posting(s) in this news category

• Covid-19 update: SA records 4,373 new cases and 21 deaths, at The Citizen
• Taxi industry opposes mooted mandatory jabs, at SowetanLIVE

LABOUR AND POLITICS

Cosatu slams government’s failure in MTBPS to tackle corruption and wasteful expenditure at provincial and municipal levels

BL Premium reports that Cosatu has slammed the medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS) and its proposed allocation of revenue for making little mention of rampant corruption and wasteful expenditure at provincial government and municipal level. The trade union federation and the SA Local Government Association (Salga), which represents municipalities, appeared before parliament’s select committee on appropriations on Tuesday to discuss the MTBPS presented by finance minister Enoch Godongwana earlier in November.   “A culture of simply handing over billions of rand to provinces and municipalities with little accountability and few consequences for criminal wrongdoing cannot continue,” Cosatu’s Matthew Parks said of the number of poor audit opinions, especially at municipal level. Audits of municipalities show governance is regressing in most of SA’s 257 municipalities with fruitless, wasteful, and unauthorised expenditure remaining a serious problem. “Cosatu is disappointed that the DORA [division of revenue amendment] bill and the MTBPS are silent on the litany of damning finds by the auditor-general on the rampant corruption and wasteful expenditure in our provincial government and more especially in countless municipalities,” Parks said. He indicated that Cosatu hoped the main budget in February will deal with corruption and wasteful expenditure and decisively “tackle the dysfunctionality that has come to mark so many municipalities.” Salga councillor Bongani Baloyi said organised local government acknowledged the tough economic outlook and limited fiscal space that has been worsened by Covid-19 pandemic.

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

ALLEGED MISCONDUCT / DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Sandile Buthelezi back as health director-general after hearing cleared him of all charges related to the Digital Vibes case

BusinessLive reports that the Department of Health has announced that its director-general, Sandile Buthelezi, has been reinstated. Buthelezi was implicated in the Special Investigating Unit’s reports into the controversial Digital Vibes contract. Former health minister Zweli Mkhize resigned as a result of his alleged role in the awarding of a multimillion-rand contract to Digital Vibes. The health department said in a statement that Buthelezi had resumed his role as accounting officer after a disciplinary hearing cleared him of all charges.

Read the original of the short report in the above regard at BusinessLive

COMMUTING / TRANSPORT

Metrorail in recovery mode after vandals cripple embattled rail service in Cape Town

News24Wire reports that Metrorail teams have started recovery operations in Cape Town after fibre optic cables were vandalised, resulting in the cancellation of services. Spokesperson, Nana Zenani indicated: "The lines were vandalised but they are telecom lines with no copper whatsoever. The vandalism smacks of economic sabotage on the very lines where Metrorail had gained traction in introducing new trains. Metrorail has started introducing new trains on the Cape Flats line and on the Southern line up to Retreat station." On Monday, the rail service provider said its technical teams had been deployed to investigate the extent of the damage caused by the fibre cuts, while repair work had commenced on Tuesday morning. The damage to the critical fibre optic cables resulted in "major delays in operations". Services were cancelled as it would have caused an "unsafe operating environment" affecting communication between trains and train control officers.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News. Read too, Cutting of Metrorail cables in Cape Town is economic sabotage, Prasa says, at BusinessLive