Protecting the rights of workers as they sell their labour to support their families is an essential characteristic of a humane and civilised society. In South Africa, restoring dignity in the workplace has also been a recurrent theme of the democratic project. Sadly, amid some advances, a negligent and complacent state and adverse global developments have frustrated high hopes. And even as corporate profits soar, workers continue to bear the brunt of the economic pain.
As we recognise the contribution of workers this week, let’s not forget that their jobs can be tough and perilous. It is also an opportunity to run a gauge over the world of work in South Africa and see whether in our workplaces we are offering opportunities for human development in line with the constitution’s lofty promises. How happy are our workplaces?
The constitution and the labour laws, at least on paper, facilitate a dispensation that gives the worker formal power against the employer, partially rectifying an imbalance in which workers were exploited and abused under threat of dismissal. Some critics complain that it is pro-trade union.
The Labour Relations Act attempts to introduce equality into a relationship overwhelmingly tilted in the employer’s favour, although critics say it has made the workplace “rigid” and even discouraged companies from hiring. Collective bargaining has raised wages across the board, with some estimates of a 20% differential between unionised and non-unionised workers in South Africa.
Set against the formal reality, which promised much, is a world changing before workers’ eyes. The explosion of the “gig” economy has destroyed old employment certainties, erasing whole categories of workers. Now, instead of complaining about one job, workers may have three or four to complain about.
Beyond structural challenges, workers’ gains face being wiped out by the US’s disastrous war against Iran, which has choked the global supply of oil and threatens to raise prices across the board
Mechanisation, automation and AI have revolutionised the workplace, in some cases obliterating it. In South Africa, this trend is exaggerated by the painful death inflicted on our industrial sector by bad policies, with smelters closing and steel-making furnaces extinguished as our trade deficit with even our Brics partners soars, underlining our reliance on the export of raw materials and sacrificing the chance of many new jobs in the process.
Even in mining, irrational policies and shifting BEE requirements have foreclosed on thousands of work opportunities. Our auto sector, long held up as a fortress of worker rights and advanced fabrication, is under threat from cheap Chinese exports and European Union emissions standards enforcement.
Beyond structural challenges, workers’ gains face being wiped out by the US’s disastrous war against Iran, which has choked the global supply of oil and threatens to raise prices across the board. Together with fuel, electricity, food and transport, workers face a storm of price increases that will test domestic budgeting. In worst-case scenarios we may even see interest rate increases if the rand weakens significantly against the dollar, which happened this week.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has said the fuel levy assistance granted last month will be extended for another month, offering price relief for petrol and diesel but not for the paraffin used by many households, which is unfortunate. That relief can’t continue indefinitely, and the government will have to tighten its belt elsewhere, which in turn will mean less spending and less public money entering the economy.
For all of us, tough times are ahead. Through measures at its disposal, the government must try to ensure that workers do not unduly carry the weight of technological changes and foreign conflicts and that their employers shoulder their share of the load.
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