The state should beef up its capacity to enforce labour laws, SA Communist Party leader Blade Nzimande said on Thursday.

"What is the point of having all these progressive laws on paper if the bosses can find ways to avoid them?" he asked in Pretoria.

He told the national congress of the National Union of Mineworkers the income gap between black and white South Africans widened between 1995 and 2000, while unemployment doubled.

"Capitalists" not complying with labour laws were to blame.

"We introduce the Basic Conditions of Employment and Labour Relations acts. What do the capitalists do? They retrench, they casualise, they contract," Nzimande said. "They do their best to minimise the number of workers who can actually enjoy their hard-won rights. They displace workers with machines".

The introduction of minimum wages for farm and domestic workers also resulted in more retrenchments.

"We have to find ways to force the bosses to comply with legislation, to retain jobs, to hire more workers (and) to be more labour intensive," Nzimande said. "We call for the consolidation of state capacity to ensure that the laws are effectively enforced".

At the same time, the Congress of SA Trade Unions should step up its recruitment and education campaign, focusing on vulnerable workers.

Nzimande called on all worker formations to join forces in seeking to meet the socio-economic needs of workers and the poor.

Workers' organisations should be planning ten years ahead in a programme that should include decisive progress towards a single trade union federation.

Nzimande said the upcoming growth and development summit should put pressure of private sector corporations so achieve higher levels of labour intensity in the economy.

"While... public works programmes are important, we cannot treat unemployment and poverty as if they were unfortunate accidents".

Parastatals were also of critical importance for an effective growth and development strategy.

"Privatisation exposes our economy to the short-term profit-maximising vagaries of global markets," Nzimande said.

On HIV/Aids, he bemoaned delays in realising the government's announcement a year ago on comprehensive treatment policy.

"The SACP cannot understand why there has been so much delay. We call on government... to move forward with its commitment in this respect," Nzimande said. – Sapa.