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Johannesburg – Incompetent managers – an enormous stumbling
block for employers – could be fired more easily and less expensively in terms
of the proposed amendments to labour laws approved by cabinet last week.
These proposals are, as a whole, an improvement on the
“mess” Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant published at the end of 2010, said
John Brand, one of the country’s most experienced labour practitioners.
“Incompetent managers and the high cost of getting rid of
them, particularly in the public sector but also in the private sector, is an
enormous problem,” he said.
The proposals provide for employees in highly-paid positions to be dismissed with three months’ salary as maximum compensation.
This will apply to employees earning more than R1m a year,
although the compensation limit will be negotiated in Nedlac.
Brand said there are some vexing aspects to the amendments
but as a whole they are far more refined, nuanced and well considered than
the 2010 proposals.
“I would not call the proposals good news for those without
jobs. The only section of the broad community with reason to complain about
them is the unemployed. This is far from the negative reaction that they have
so far elicited.
"You need however to read through carefully and consider the
proposals before you see the underlying thinking and the implications,” he
said.
On the negative side, his biggest concern in the amendments
is the power Oliphant wants to accord herself to prescribe real wage
increases in sectors or industries where negotiations on increases cannot be
settled by collective bargaining.
“This is unheard of and will create huge
problems if implemented. It’s crucial,” he said.
He is also not impressed with the proposals to broaden
essential services. “This is a correct line of thought, but to me it appears
unworkable.”
Brand, who in the apartheid era gained prominence as the
legal representative for the labour movement, has in the past two years angrily
lambasted the tendency for violence during strikes.
He proposed that a mechanism be created in the legislation
by means of which a labour court judge can declare violent strikes unprotected
strikes, with workers liable to being fired should the strike continue.
The amendments presented to cabinet last week provide for
such a mechanism should violence arise during protests.
“Employers ought to rejoice about this. It still does not go
far enough, but it's certainly a step in the right direction,” he said.
Other positive amendments are greater protection for
minority trade unions, which can now obtain the right to organise with greater
ease than before – an issue that played a big role last month in the protracted
strike at Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg mines.
“This is in line with legislation
in other social democracies like the Scandinavian countries.”
On Friday Cosatu sources were still studying the proposals
and declined to comment. But Cosatu has previously threatened that voting
requirements before workers receive the right to strike will receive stiff
opposition.
This, said Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, was “the most serious assault on trade union rights since 1995”.
Nick Robb, labour specialist at the firm Webber Wentzel,
said the latest version of voting requirements has however been watered
down.
“Failure to comply does not affect the legitimacy of the
strike or affect striker protection,” he said.
Temporary workers may, according to the latest proposals, be employed as temporary workers for no longer than six months.
After that they
become permanent employees – but this applies only to workers earning less than
R172 000 a year or R14 333 a month.
Brand said this is a well considered proposal, in line
with the protection of poorer and low-paid workers.
But it won't help create jobs. The Steel and Engineering
Industries' Federation (Seifsa), which represents thousands of small employers
and a number of large employers in the manufacturing sector, said measures
to regulate labour broking are punitive and place additional unnecessary
pressure on business operations.
“They will further increase the costs of doing business, and
lead to more job losses. Jobs will not be created by making it more difficult
and complicated to run a business,” said Seifsa president Henk Duys.
- Sake24
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