The DA calls on government to respond to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (NUMSA) strike by strengthening the Youth Wage Subsidy and reforming labour law to introduce real democracy in labour relations.
 
It is deeply ironic that NUMSA is on strike to protest the one policy that has already helped more than 56 000 young people get subsidised employment since the beginning of the year.

They embark on this job-killing strike even as the latest quarterly employment statistics from Statics South Africa shows that manufacturing has shed jobs in the past year.
 

 
This strike will also impose a serious cost on the economy. The last NUMSA strike of 30 000 auto workers was estimated to cost our economy R600 million per day. If many more of NUMSA’s 300 000 workers strike today, the daily cost could run into the billions.
 

 
Government should stand up to NUMSA by committing to strengthen the Youth Wage Subsidy through:
 
  

• Allowing a cash pay-out for those firms who can’t subsidise new jobs because their PAYE bill is too small;
• Extending the subsidy to existing young workers;
• Subsidising young entry level workers in sectors without wage determinations; and
• Scraping the sunset clause.

 
The DA will support government in these measures as well as in reforms to labour legislation that gives ordinary workers more of a voice and that cuts the cost of compliance for small businesses.
 

 
In this regard government should introduce reforms to:
 
  

• Require balloting of workers before a strike;
• Establishing a universal minimum threshold for representation to allow smaller unions to participate in collective bargaining;
• Scrapping closed-shop agreements; and
• Removing the extension of bargaining council agreements to non-parties.

 
If government introduces these measures to strengthen the Youth Wage Subsidy, and give ordinary workers more of a say in labour relations, they will help bring stability to labour relations, restore investor confidence and help the private sector to create hundreds of thousands of jobs for young South Africans.
 

 
The first step is to stand up against NUMSA and their labour aristocracy on behalf of young, unemployed South Africans.
 

 
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