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Johannesburg - Shorter working hours - a distressing final course of action before retrenchments become unavoidable, are rapidly gaining ground in South Africa.
Since the second quarter of last year 608 000 more South Africans are working fewer than the normal 45 hours a week.
This is reflected in an analysis by trade union Solidarity of Statistics South Africa's latest quarterly labour-force survey.
The introduction of shorter working hours is frequently an attempt to avert looming retrenchments and save costs, says the union.
This practice is, however, controversial, especially in a country where wages are already low and the government can offer little support.
The metal and engineering sectors, which include heavily embattled industries such as motor manufacturing, make particular use of shorter working hours.
According to Solidarity, between February and April 283 Section 189 notices, the start of compulsory labour cuts, were issued in these sectors, affecting 6 870 employees.
In the same period 1 663 notices of planned reduction of working hours were issued, affecting 47 200 workers.
Last week the central committee of Numsa, the biggest trade union in the metal sector, criticised shorter working hours as one of many "anti-working class" moves passing the cost of the crisis on to the workers.
In many cases workers would prefer to resign and use their pensions to cover their living expenses in the short term.
-Sake24