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Johannesburg - Only the informal and public sectors created jobs in SA during March, according to the latest Adcorp Employment Index.
The SA economy shed 48 066 jobs during March, while the informal sector created 13 959 jobs.
The public sector created 16 000 jobs in government and 4 000 in state-owned enterprises during the month.
The biggest job losses occurred in temporary (excluding agency) work, which lost 48 241 jobs during the month, and permanent work, which lost 13 784 jobs during the month.
Significant job losses were observed in mining (-26.5%), construction (-12.7%), wholesale and retail trade (-6.9%), and transport and logistics - including communications (-11.0%).
Among occupations, only professional occupations created jobs during the month (10 000).
Mining industry
Adcorp labour economist Loane Sharp analysed South Africa’s current platinum strike crisis within the context of the country’s history of trade unionism.
He warned that deliberate action should be taken to avoid a repeat of history.
He stated that mining sector unionisation, at 78% of the mining sector workforce, is an anomaly in South Africa.
Average unionisation in the private sector as a whole is usually just 12%.
He analysed these figures, referencing Prof. Thomas Hazlett’s account of the origin of racial segregation in South Africa – with specific reference to the gold rush of the late 1880s.
He argued that this scenario illustrates that when government policy is formulated based on the narrow special interests of trade unions, a political tragedy is inevitable.
In order to avoid this he states that platinum producers should immediately and unilaterally implement their best affordable offer to workers.
He said platinum producers should use the SA Police Service or armed and trained private security personnel to offer protection to workers, who wish to return to work.
Key player
“A key player in the mining industry’s R600m damages claim against the Association of Construction and Mineworkers Union (Amcu) is an important first step and it should be immediately joined by their peers," said Sharp.
"The company is alleging that striking workers have caused damage to its property and loss of production due to intimidation of non-striking workers.”
He said other companies should equally sue the CCMA and the Minister of Labour for failing in their legal duty to "promote greater worker and employer co-operation and industrial peace".
The World Economic Forum now ranks South Africa’s level of conflict in labour and employer relations as 148th out of 148 countries in the world.
If a settlement is reached, the platinum producers should refuse to pay striking workers a return-to-work bonus, in his opinion.
“The practice of paying strikers ‘back pay' for their time on strike makes a mockery of the ‘no work, no pay’ principle and acts as a serious economic incentive to turn out on strike," he said.
“In our current labour climate, trade unions deliberately raise wages to protect the vested interests of their (mainly older, skilled and experienced) members, for whom unskilled people (mainly youth) are a competitive threat."
In his view, in the same way that white mineworkers tried to keep black mineworkers out of the mines, skilled black workers are now trying to keep unskilled black youth out of work.
"The political and economic history of South Africa in the 21st century will be the story of how this untenable struggle pans out,” he said.
The SA economy shed 48 066 jobs during March, while the informal sector created 13 959 jobs.
The public sector created 16 000 jobs in government and 4 000 in state-owned enterprises during the month.
The biggest job losses occurred in temporary (excluding agency) work, which lost 48 241 jobs during the month, and permanent work, which lost 13 784 jobs during the month.
Significant job losses were observed in mining (-26.5%), construction (-12.7%), wholesale and retail trade (-6.9%), and transport and logistics - including communications (-11.0%).
Among occupations, only professional occupations created jobs during the month (10 000).
Mining industry
Adcorp labour economist Loane Sharp analysed South Africa’s current platinum strike crisis within the context of the country’s history of trade unionism.
He warned that deliberate action should be taken to avoid a repeat of history.
He stated that mining sector unionisation, at 78% of the mining sector workforce, is an anomaly in South Africa.
Average unionisation in the private sector as a whole is usually just 12%.
He analysed these figures, referencing Prof. Thomas Hazlett’s account of the origin of racial segregation in South Africa – with specific reference to the gold rush of the late 1880s.
He argued that this scenario illustrates that when government policy is formulated based on the narrow special interests of trade unions, a political tragedy is inevitable.
In order to avoid this he states that platinum producers should immediately and unilaterally implement their best affordable offer to workers.
He said platinum producers should use the SA Police Service or armed and trained private security personnel to offer protection to workers, who wish to return to work.
Key player
“A key player in the mining industry’s R600m damages claim against the Association of Construction and Mineworkers Union (Amcu) is an important first step and it should be immediately joined by their peers," said Sharp.
"The company is alleging that striking workers have caused damage to its property and loss of production due to intimidation of non-striking workers.”
He said other companies should equally sue the CCMA and the Minister of Labour for failing in their legal duty to "promote greater worker and employer co-operation and industrial peace".
The World Economic Forum now ranks South Africa’s level of conflict in labour and employer relations as 148th out of 148 countries in the world.
If a settlement is reached, the platinum producers should refuse to pay striking workers a return-to-work bonus, in his opinion.
“The practice of paying strikers ‘back pay' for their time on strike makes a mockery of the ‘no work, no pay’ principle and acts as a serious economic incentive to turn out on strike," he said.
“In our current labour climate, trade unions deliberately raise wages to protect the vested interests of their (mainly older, skilled and experienced) members, for whom unskilled people (mainly youth) are a competitive threat."
In his view, in the same way that white mineworkers tried to keep black mineworkers out of the mines, skilled black workers are now trying to keep unskilled black youth out of work.
"The political and economic history of South Africa in the 21st century will be the story of how this untenable struggle pans out,” he said.
