Commission to Investigate the Development of a Comprehensive Labour Market Policy

Terms of Reference

The RDP is rooted in a strong commitment to employment creation, to fair remuneration and working conditions, to industrial democracy, and to the elimination of racial and gender-based discrimination in the labour market. Active labour market policies, productivity enhancement and a stable macroeconomic environment are key mechanisms for meeting the RDP's employment-related objectives. This Commission is charged with developing the labour market policies necessary to meet the RDP's employment-related objectives and that are consistent with the requirements of productivity enhancement and macroeconomic stability. In particular the Commission will examine and report on:

1. The development of an institutional framework for integrating the dual requirements of rapid and sustainable economic and employment growth and rising average living standards. This will include an investigation of:

• the potential role of national tripartite institutions in income determination;

• the appropriate relationship between national income determination and existing wage determination mechanisms;

• the component elements of a national incomes accord;

• the role of public sector employment policy in achieving the employment-related objectives of the RDP; and

• the impact of alternate mechanisms of wage determination on the development of small and medium-scale enterprises.

2 The role of national economic policy and national institutions in productivity enhancement, in particular,

• building a national productivity accord;
• identifying national policy initiatives that encourage the adoption of productivity enhancing work organisation; and
• examining the relationship between industrial relations systems and practices, on the one hand, and productivity, on the other. In particular the Commission will identify labour relations- and labour market-related impediments to technological progress and to the introduction of new forms of work organisation.

3. The role of labour market policies in addressing negative social implications associated with economic restructuring and productivity enhancement, by examining, in particular,

• the link between technological change and other forms of productivity enhancement, on the one hand, and job-loss, on the other;
• labour market policies designed to address the impact of regional and sectoral decline; and
• the feasibility of a Social Plan Act.

4. Mechanisms aimed at redressing discrimination in the labour market. In particular the Commission will consider a policy framework for affirmative action in employment with due regard for the objectives of employment creation, fair remuneration, productivity enhancement and macroeconomic stability.

5. An appropriate policy framework for dealing with access to the South African labour market by non-South African nationals with due regard for the supply of labour, availability of employment and the imperatives of regional economic co-operation and development.

 

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