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Johannesburg - Workers want a total ban of labour brokers,
Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said on Thursday.
"We want to be hired directly by those benefiting from
our labour," he told a Food and Allied Workers' Union congress in
Johannesburg.
Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant earlier this week said it
was not possible to heed union demands to ban brokers overnight.
She said the Labour Relations Act first needed to be amended
and phased out.
The main problem with labour brokers is that the work
agreement is between the broker and employer, instead of between the employer
and employee. Salaries are then paid to brokers.
Vavi said workers also wanted an affordable and efficient
public transport system to replace the "moving coffins" that
marginalised people were forced to use.
He felt the Gautrain was for the elite.
"We continue to be frustrated by trains that are
insufficient and unreliable."
Cosatu would also take up the issue of water accessibility.
"We are told that we are going downhill and that by 2017, we will run out of water here in Gauteng. This is because we don't have enough dams."
He said water underground was "spoilt" because of
mining, and that acid water threatened drinking water and vegetation.
"These are important demands that we are pursuing," Vavi said.
