Johannesburg - Business Unity SA (Busa) on Thursday welcomed
recent suggestions by two cabinet ministers on the need for a flexible labour
market.
Busa said it agreed with the suggestion by Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan and Planning Minister Trevor Manuel that South Africa would not
reach employment targets unless greater efforts are made to maintain an
employment-friendly environment in which business is encouraged to create
jobs.
It believed a flexible labour market is essential for
widespread job creation in South Africa, Busa said.
"If large-scale youth unemployment in particular is to
be successfully tackled, there will need to be more flexibility around the
regulatory framework and the acceptance of wage subsidy initiatives," it
said.
"Any legislative reform should identify and eliminate
administrative or statutory obstacles to job rich economic growth."
On Wednesday, Manuel appeared to endorse Gordhan's
suggestion that labour laws might need to be relaxed to create more jobs.
At a conference in Johannesburg earlier this week, Gordhan
said it might be necessary "to change the way we see the labour
dispensation in South Africa".
Laws might need to be relaxed to allow young people to enter
the workplace and gain skills and experience at lower wages, but not at the
expense of people who already have jobs.
Unless such changes are made, "we will not be able to
make the breakthrough we need to create jobs", Gordhan said at the time.
In the National Assembly on Wednesday, opposition leader Athol
Trollip asked Manuel whether he agreed with Gordhan's assertion that "we
would have to look at restrictive labour legislation if we are to create more
jobs in the economy".
Manuel replied that he had studied the text of Gordhan's
speech, and this was but one snippet.
However, he then said: "I think all what he said is a
position that I would endorse wholeheartedly. We must let nothing stand in the
way of job creation in this country."
Busa said it remains involved in the National Economic
Development and Labour Council process of examining labour law amendments to
ensure that further hurdles are not placed in the way of job creation.
"The ultimate aim is to create a product of these
negotiations that will create a climate conducive to job creation, especially
by small business," Busa said.
According to Statistics SA, South Africa's official unemployment
rate stands at 25.7%
Under the expanded definition of unemployment - which refers
to people of working age without work and available to start work that week,
but who had not looked for work in the four weeks before the Stats SA interview
- 7 678 000 South Africans are unemployed.