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The Federation of Unions of South Africa, (FEDUSA) has today requested a meeting with the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Labour, and the African National Congress Caucus to discuss the most recent deliberations that took place in a committee meeting on Tuesday, 4 June 2013. There is great concern that following thorough discussions with the social partners, agreements reached around the issue of labour broking in particular are being overlooked by the Portfolio Committee.
 
FEDUSA General Secretary, Dennis George explains “It has come to the attention of our Federation that following lengthy discussions and debate within the NEDLAC process, the agreements that were reached on the Labour Legislation Amendment Bills are not being interpreted with the integrity required. It is of concern to the Federation that the decisions taken at NEDLAC appear to have been disregarded and that the recommendations reached through a thorough process of social dialogue seem to hold little value in the process going forward”.
 
Considering the fact that this quarter South Africa has seen its lowest gross domestic product figure of 0.9%, against a government projected 2.7%, the lowest since the economic crisis of 2008, and that since then, according to Statistics South Africa, our numbers of employed individuals have decreased from 14 million workers to 13.411 million, we face a serious crisis of unemployment and stunted growth as a country. George explains “Furthermore, the serious production disruption as a result of labour unrest in the mining sector has resulted in the rapid decline of the Rand, falling commodity prices and growing pessimism of private sector confidence which only has the potential to prolong any recovery in the near future. We do not even wish to venture into what the impact would be for government revenue, the borrowing cost to make up for the fiscal deficit and what a second downgrading of the sovereign credit rating could mean for our country”.
 
As the Labour Legislation Amendment Bills are contentious issues among the social partners, FEDUSA has requested the opportunity to meet with the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Labour, and the committee members from the ANC in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the intentions of the Committee going forward.
 
George continued “FEDUSA calls on the Portfolio Committee to consider that the labour market is  interconnected, inseparable and pivotal to inclusive economic growth and employment creation.  What we have gathered from initial responses to the amendments is that enterprises intend to embark on an aggressive approach of mechanization away from labour intensive methods of employment in order to save costs and to remain internationally competitive.  This could further result in retrenchments which the country could ill afford at this stage”.
 
FEDUSA is of the view that these contentious matters could be amicably addressed through social dialogue in order to find an appropriate balance between decent employment protection and rapid employment creation that our country needs at this juncture given the facts according to Statistics South Africa.   It is hoped that through frank discussion and dialogue with the Chairperson and his Committee that this can be addressed.