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Johannesburg - Cosatu has declared the 2010 festive season a "black" one, given the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost since last year.
The labour federation delivered its end-of-year message on Tuesday.
Official figures show that about 1.17 million jobs have been lost since the 2008/9 recession.
Cosatu says these job losses plunged 5.85 million family members of jobless workers into the ranks of the poor.
The labour federation has also raised concern over what it referred to as a continuing shift from permanent to temporary employment.
It highlighted the latest Adcorp Employment Index, which shows that the number of permanent workers fell by 2.74%, while that of temporary workers slipped by only 1.60%.
It again lashed out at the labour broking industry.
The Adcorp Employment Index has revealed that there are about 100 000 more labour broker workers than previously estimated.
Those who support labour brokers see this as an indication that the industry is able to help people find work.
Cosatu, however, disagrees, saying jobs secured through labour broking have a "devastating" effect on the levels of pay, job security and benefits for thousands of workers.
The labour department has published draft amendments to various labour related acts, including the basic conditions of employment amendment draft bill and the labour relations amendment daft bill. Comments on these will be accepted until February 17 2011.
General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said although Cosatu is still studying the draft bills, it would like to see one outcome: "Doing away with the third man in the relationship that should exist between a worker and the employer.
"We want a total ban of the system (labour broking) that has condemned so many to new slavery by what has become to be known as human traffickers," he said.
