JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The South African labour relations system is again at a crossroads, similar to that of the 1980s when the Wiehahn report led to the founding of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Solidarity leaders Flip Buys and Gideon du Plessis say in an article published in Beeld.

“The labour relations system is under pressure and will have to be reviewed,” the leaders of the minority union conclude.

They identify the majoritarian character of South Africa’s Labour Relations Act as the detonator of the strikes that have engulfed the platinum industry and they accuse platinum companies like Implats of entrenching majoritarianism to the detriment of the industry.

They warn that the wave of strikes could paralyse the entire mining industry and lead to huge losses for the country.

The crisis has been fuelled, they say, through the exclusion of employees who do not belong to the majority union at company level and pay-increase concessions to striking workers even before existing wage agreements expired.

The system, Buys and Du Plessis say, is also at the root of the crisis in sectors such as education, where the Cosatu-affiliated South African Democratic Teachers Union practically "rules".

They add that the system results in some workers outside the majority union seeing violence as the only way of being heard.

They note that most companies have sensed the danger of majoritarianism in time and have chosen to recognise minority unions as a way of ensuring greater workplace balance.

The oversupply of lower-skilled workers and the pressure of the higher cost of living – especially for migrants who operate two households – is exacerbating the problem.

“South Africa's labour market is unique because it simultaneously characterised by high unemployment, high wages, low skills and a shortage of well-trained employees.

“This artificial labour market is the result of labour legislation, Cosatu's power in the alliance and South Africa's poor showing in education and training,” the Solidarity leaders say.