The DA will continue its fight against the job-killing Labour Relations Amendment (LRA) Bill when it comes before Parliament for a vote later today.
 
This is the second time this bill will be before the House for a vote after the DA successfully blocked a vote on the bill during the last sitting of the House on 20 June 2013 – two months ago to the day.
 
The current version of the bill, following last minute COSATU-appeasing amendments to it by the ANC in Parliament’s Labour committee, will result in thousands of job losses.
 
A vote for this bill is a vote against South Africa’s poor and unemployed.

As it stands, there are two major flaws with the bill:
 

• Firstly, the bill limits the term for Temporary Employment Services that govern labour broking to three months after initially providing for a six month limit. There is no telling how many jobs will be lost as a result of this – what is certain is that thousands of jobs are at risk;
• Secondly, the bill no longer provides for the requirement of balloting before a strike as proposed by the Department of Labour in the original version of the bill. In removing this requirement the ANC in Parliament are seeking to entrench the undemocratic nature of South Africa’s existing labour relations framework.

The DA believes that the democratisation of labour relations is the only way to address the underlying causes of union rivalry that has fuelled labour unrest in the mining sector – a sector that is shedding thousands of jobs as a result.

 
The DA will vote against this job-killing piece of legislation and do so knowing that we are acting on behalf of South Africa’s poor and unemployed.