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May 27 2012 11:21
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May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Midrand - Cosatu is demanding a total prohibition on labour broking - not merely the regulation currently being proposed - and will take to the streets about it, Sdumo Dlamini, president of the trade union federation declared on Monday.
Dlamini adopted an implacable stance towards labour broking in his presidential address at Cosatu's triennial Congress in Midrand.
"A total ban is what we want. If this does not happen, the country will be brought to a standstill because all the powers agree on this. We'll meet one another in the streets. Cosatu is able to fill the streets in this regard."
He reckons that Cosatu is prepared to do its part and work together with government and other South Africans "until the dark cloud of the economic crisis has lifted, but we expect the same commitment from government to outlaw labour brokers - not merely to regulate them".
In one of the draft resolutions before the Congress an government is castigated because during the ANC's election campaign promises were made that labour brokers would be outlawed, but now it is only being proposed that the industry be regulated.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, in an official statement shortly afterwards, denied that he had departed from his original standpoint on labour brokers.
"The review of labour legislation is aimed at ensuring that workers employed by labour brokers have the same rights and protection as any other workers," Mdladlana remarked.
But he also pointed out that in his view there was no legal justification for the existence of labour brokers. "It's an issue that needs to be settled once and for all."
A resolution that will be presented to the Congress for adoption later this week, however, refers to a total ban having been promised during the election campaign, but that government has since "followed a softer approach" and now favours regulation of the sector rather than a total prohibition.
The resolution then demands the introduction of stringent regulation or even the total outlawing of labour brokers.
The same resolution wants labour disputes on the outsourcing of services to be declared an "issue of interest" so that unions and their members can call out strikes against outsourcing.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.