Time to face the truth

THE National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) held its 16th annual summit last Friday.

The summit is supposed to be a showcase and review of dialogue between the "social partners": organised business, the trade union movement and the government - the so-called golden triangle that played such a big role in the reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War.

As unemployment is supposed to feature prominently in the debate and those without jobs do not have structures to represent them, it was decided when Nedlac was founded in 1995 to include a fourth social partner, the community. Communities are represented by welfare and non-governmental organisations.

The annual summit is attended by the principal representatives of all four partners - usually the president or at least his deputy, and the president of the business sector's umbrella organisation Business Unity South Africa. As many as 10 or 12 cabinet members - generally those whose portfolios concern economic decision-making - also attend.

Previously the CEOs of all the country's most important companies attended the summit, but in recent years their interest has waned considerably.

The very first Nedlac summit was held in 1995, amid negotiations between the three partners over the Labour Relations Act (LRA) - the first and most important of the country's five labour laws. At that first conference labour legislation was a thorny issue on which labour was quite outspoken; the country's business executives bit their lips while gnashing their teeth.

In the 16 years since that time, nothing has changed when labour legislation is discussed. And when the subject is not spoken about, labour legislation has been the proverbial elephant in the room.

During former president Thabo Mbeki's administration certain clauses were reviewed, but the most important change was a beefing-up of Section 189 of the LRA - the regulation of job cuts.

A strict procedure has been prescribed for employers to follow for the dismissal of workers as a consequence of industrial conditions. And, from the employer's perspective, the situation has worsened rather than improved.

Friday saw a rerun - especially after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said three weeks ago that an arrangement needs to be created to lower the cost of employing younger, unskilled workers, or South Africa would not manage to reduce unemployment.

His suggestion elicited a chorus of protest from Cosatu trade unions.

A week later cabinet said the only amendments to labour legislation under consideration are those proposed for, inter alia, clamping down on labour broking. And it declared the department of labour the only department responsible for labour legislation - a slap in the face of our esteemed finance minister.

At Friday's Nedlac summit the chief spokesperson for labour, Cosatu deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali, lashed out angrily at any suggestion of relaxing labour legislation. He objected specifically to wage subsidies for the youth, the extension of probation periods for new workers and the moderation of wages.

No trust as inequality grows

These proposals have been advocated by the state for many years. In 1998 the government mooted them for the first time as proposals to be discussed at that year's job-creation summit.

They are rational proposals for creating jobs. In this year's budget, Gordhan set aside R5bn for wage subsidies to support an estimated 423 000 new posts for young people.

But Cosatu firmly believes that any concession in this regard would be a crack in the labour legislation dyke, and ultimately cause the structure's collapse. So far it has had precious little effect.

The so-called partners are simply unable to reconcile two basic truths: firstly, SA's labour market consists of millions of vulnerable unemployed who need laws to protect them from exploitation.

Secondly, the costs and risks associated with employment need to be adjusted to stimulate the hiring of inexperienced young workers.

At Friday's summit, labour legislation was not so much the elephant in the room as the hollow sentiments expressed by each of the social partners - while everyone knew that they were well-meaning but hollow, and that precious little or no progress has been made on urgent issues no one wanted to address openly.

No one will admit it, but everyone knows that real social dialogue has come to naught.

In a panel discussion Tony Ehrenreich, Cosatu's Western Cape leader, eventually put his finger on the pulse.

He said that should there be a worsening of the fault lines in our community - such as increasing poverty and inequality, and the growing population of young people with no employment prospects - we will in future be obliged to seek new solutions. This can happen only if we speak to and engage one another.

But, he said, involvement is impossible without trust and some degree of shared values. This means we will have to ask ourselves difficult questions.

It's impossible to build trust in an environment of growing inequality - an environment with the sort of excesses seen in the business community, but also more and more within government.

This kind of thing makes it very difficult for people to believe that they are being considered as much as they ought to be. We urgently need to find ways to undo the damage and build credibility and trust.

"You can't expect people to tighten their belts while they see the other side of the road loosening theirs. As long as this happens, it will be impossible for us to move closer to one another," said Ehrenreich.

Standard Bank's Jacko Maree did not attend.

He had probably previously noted the wisdom of Ehrenreich's words.