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Cape Town - Fin24 user Doug Harris has laid the blame for the platinum strike squarely at the door of the ruling ANC, saying they had done little to unshackle the chains of legislation that prevent business from hiring more people.
In response to a call for debate on the platinum mining strike, he said in an environment where scary unemployment numbers are the order of the day one wonders where the justification is in having such powerful Unions attempting to hold companies to ransom.
"In a perfect free market companies would be allowed to source the cheapest labour supply available.
"Having said that, I understand that the reality for the workers is that they have many dependents or mouths to feed. If we had more people in work then this would be far less of a problem.
"In my humble opinion there is only one place to look to portion blame and that lies squarely with the ANC government. They have really done little to unshackle the chains of legislation that prevent business from hiring more people."
Harris said the ANC quoted numbers on so called performance on employment, but these numbers are twisted.
"Real employment numbers are actually negative over the last 15 years as the numbers of new eligible workers entering the labour have actually increased."
Inside Labour columnists Terry Bell responds:
Hi Doug,
I would disagree about the power of unions. Such things are relative.
A "perfect free market" was also the very thing that gave rise to trade unions in the first place. The sourcing of the cheapest labour available goes on all the time in our globalised world, with, to give South African examples, everything from footwear and wind-up radios being outsourced initially to China.
There is also one point that must be borne in mind: no company of any kind, if it wishes to survive in a competitive world, employs more labour than is necessary to perform the tasks at hand.
Legislation does not prevent business from hiring more people; business will not hire any more than necessary. More labour usually means more production and, in a world of surplus production and surplus capacity, more productive employment does not, generally, make sense.
But these are points that must be debated.
Regards
- Fin24
* Terry Bell is an independent political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
In response to a call for debate on the platinum mining strike, he said in an environment where scary unemployment numbers are the order of the day one wonders where the justification is in having such powerful Unions attempting to hold companies to ransom.
"In a perfect free market companies would be allowed to source the cheapest labour supply available.
"Having said that, I understand that the reality for the workers is that they have many dependents or mouths to feed. If we had more people in work then this would be far less of a problem.
"In my humble opinion there is only one place to look to portion blame and that lies squarely with the ANC government. They have really done little to unshackle the chains of legislation that prevent business from hiring more people."
Harris said the ANC quoted numbers on so called performance on employment, but these numbers are twisted.
"Real employment numbers are actually negative over the last 15 years as the numbers of new eligible workers entering the labour have actually increased."
Inside Labour columnists Terry Bell responds:
Hi Doug,
I would disagree about the power of unions. Such things are relative.
A "perfect free market" was also the very thing that gave rise to trade unions in the first place. The sourcing of the cheapest labour available goes on all the time in our globalised world, with, to give South African examples, everything from footwear and wind-up radios being outsourced initially to China.
There is also one point that must be borne in mind: no company of any kind, if it wishes to survive in a competitive world, employs more labour than is necessary to perform the tasks at hand.
Legislation does not prevent business from hiring more people; business will not hire any more than necessary. More labour usually means more production and, in a world of surplus production and surplus capacity, more productive employment does not, generally, make sense.
But these are points that must be debated.
Regards
- Fin24
* Terry Bell is an independent political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
