THEME: The workers’ story: 20 years of democracy
Speaker of the Legislature, Mr Sipho Lubisi
Chair of Public Participation and Petitions, Dr Mkasi
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Kuyajabulisa ukuzithola uhleli noma ukhuluma nabantu abazwana negazi lakho nelakho lizwana negazi labo.
Ngisekhaya la. Ngizithola ngiphakathi kwezinsizwa nezintombi, omama nobaba, abafowethu nodadewethu. Okungijabulisa kakhulu ukuthi sonke silapha nje singabasebenzi. Kusasa usuku lapho abasebenzi bethola ilanga elilodwa labo nje qwaba. Ilanga lethu sonke.
Programme director
To be able to celebrate May Day was one of the rights that we fought for in this country. It was one of the rights that many workers laid their lives on the line for. And indeed, many of our workers were killed for the privilege that we now enjoy and sometimes take for granted.
Today’s theme revolves around celebrating the workers’ story in this the amazing, fascinating and expansive book that we have been writing with the onset of democracy 20 years ago. Without a shadow of the doubt, this is a good story – despite the naysayers who would even go so far as denying that the sun rises in the East given half the chance.
Twenty years ago, there were at least 53 pieces of legislation governing the labour regime. These pieces of legislation differed from province to province, from homeland to homeland, from Bantustan to Bantustan. In their place, we have put together four essential pieces of legislation, which range are the: Labour Relations, Basic Condition of Employment, Employment Equity and the Employment Services Acts (which is a new law).
There are other supporting pieces of legislation, which further give impetus, and support to a better life for all. This includes the Unemployment Insurance Act and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act. The last two give real meaning to taking care of workers and provide a social protection floor for those who find themselves in difficult position – whether through being jobless or injury or occupational diseases.
I am indebted to my predecessors for the sterling effort that they put into the issues that affect workers in this country. These comrades are to this day still active in the people’s movement and they give of their time and wise counsel. I have a great tradition to follow and it is my fervent hope that I have followed in their footsteps.
That is the great tradition of the African National Congress. There is continuity. There is unity of purpose. Even though we may differ and sometimes fight openly, we are however never blind to the reason for our being – to improve the lives of our people.
Our tradition stretches back to the intellectuals like John Langalibalele Dube and Pixley kaSeme. Our traditions are entrenched in the democratic principles that we started to advocate when this organisation was formed in 1912 and continues to this day. It was the tradition that saw solidarity with workers through the Rand Miners Strike of 1922 and other worker led expressions of anger and discontent at the systemic oppression that stretches across centuries and decades.
That tradition saw the formation of worker organisations, which stood shoulder to shoulder with all those who wanted change for the better. Sactwu, Fedtraw and a number of other organisations. Heroes and heroines distinguished themselves. I can think of many people like Mita Sperepere, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Dora Tamara and Elijah Barayi to mention but a few.
It is a tradition yet to be copied by any party in this country wherein the president of the movement is elected by ordinary branch members.
It is the tradition that saw the multitudes that congregated in Kliptown declare to the whole world that this country shall be free and that all persons will be treated with dignity bestowed on them by the occasion of birth. With regard to the working conditions, the Freedom Charter committed the state to ensure that:
- All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers;
- The state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;
- Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work;
- There shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers;
- Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants shall have the same rights as all others who work;
- Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished.
It is that tradition that sees us every five years charting the way forward. We revitalise and re-examine the relevance of what we do. We chuck out that which has run its course. So it was that in 2009, the ANC at its conference in Polokwane decided on a number of things.
We promised that:
In order to avoid exploitation of workers and ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment relationship, (we will) introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and out- sourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices. Provisions will be introduced to facilitate unionisation of workers and conclusion of sectoral collective agreements to cover vulnerable workers in these different legal relationships and ensure the right to permanent employment for affected workers.
I am happy to report that in keeping with the traditions and the promises we have made, most of what I have mentioned here above have become a reality.
The Department of Labour has a very specific mandate, which directs us to:
- To regulate the labour market through policies and programmes developed with social partners, which are aimed at:
- Improved economic efficiency and productivity,
- employment creation
- Sound labour relations
- Eliminating inequality and discrimination in the workplace
- Alleviating poverty in employment
- Enhancing occupational health and safety awareness and compliance in the workplace , and
- Nurturing the culture of acceptance that worker rights are human rights.
Let me just highlight some of the changes to the laws and what it means for workers:
1. Amendments to the Labour Relations Act (No 66 of 1995)
These amendments, which are the first since 2002, have had a long and difficult passage. Earlier versions were first published in December 2010. The amended act strengthens the legal basis for ensuring decent work in the South African labour market. The main objective was to regulate contract work, subcontracting and outsourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices in relation to labour broking.
There has been a lot of focus on the reduction of the six month time period for temporary employment to three months. The time period was already a contested issue in NEDLAC with business arguing for a longer period and labour wanting a shorter period. Three months is not unreasonable and although there may be some initial negative impact on employment, it is likely to stabilise over time.
The amended act allows for the continued utilisation of temporary employment but they also regulate temporary employment in ways that will prohibit abuses.
The range of other amendments to dispute resolution processes, essential services, and related matters will promote sound labour relations and decent work.
There are a few amendments to section 55 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), which will also be important for collective bargaining in the future. The powers of the Minister and the Employment Conditions Commission in respect of sectoral determinations are adjusted by these amendments in the following ways:
- The Minister may issue an ’umbrella’ sectoral determination covering employees not covered by any other sectoral determination or by a bargaining council agreement. Some commentators have interpreted this change as laying the basis for the introduction of a national minimum wage. That issue is contained in the current manifesto where the organisation has promised to investigate this issue.
- In future, sectoral determinations may prescribe minimum increases of remuneration. We have in mind vulnerable sectors where pay rates settle very close to the minimum prescribed in a sectoral determination and where the determination of a minimum
The new Employment Services act will ensure that more people get opportunities for work. Cabinet also approved the submission of the improved Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill which, amongst other things seeks to improve the benefits for pregnant mothers and all the beneficiaries. This is obviously going to be the work for the fifth Parliament but we are forging ahead with moving South Africa forward.
One of the significant changes to the amended BCEA is that it will give a real stick to the inspectorate to fine companies that do not comply with the labour laws severely. This is not what we want. We want business to understand that to comply with the law is good business. It is in their interests and their workers to do the right thing.Our commitment is firstly to educate and guide business on what needs to be done. Failing that, they will take action to ensure that workers are safe.
This is also an appeal to workers and their representatives to play a much more active role in ensuring their own safety. In the workplaces we have visited over the last years, we have seen that workers do not really play a pivotal role in their own safety. They leave everything to the company and sometimes companies cut corners. The workers should approach and report to inspectors that which makes them uncomfortable or feel unsafe. We cannot continue having workplaces becoming death places.
We remember speaker that not too long ago, that workers were killed near Malelane while travelling on the back of the truck that rammed into a goods train. Surely these accidents are avoidable. Probably workers knew exactly that the driving was not up to scratch or had an inkling that their lives were in danger but kept quiet, worrying about keeping their jobs. This cannot be allowed to continue.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that ours is the struggle for social justice. We have a painful history in our country. We have a history whereby a large number of citizens were treated as if they did not exist. Their rights were trampled upon. They were used as fodder to feed the apartheid economic machinery. They were not accorded the rights as set out in international bodies like the United Nations and other related bodies like the International Labour Organisation.
The dawn of the new era meant we needed to ensure all we could to push back the frontiers of slavery that our people had been reduced to. We decided that never again will this country be a place where rights were accorded according to colour. Our Constitution was inclusive and extolled the virtues of the dignity to all human beings.
Social just is defined as: The fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.
In other words, this term is used to refer to “a set of institutions which enables people to lead a fulfilling life and be active contributors to their community.”
Further, they describe it as the same as human development, and the relevant institutions are usually taken to include education, health care, social security, labour rights, as well as a broader system of public services, progressive taxation and regulation of markets, to ensure fair distribution of wealth, equality of opportunity, and no gross inequality of outcome.
The esteemed scholar, John Rawls developed a conception of justice speaking to two moral powers – a capacity for a sense of justice and a conception of the good. These help us to understand to apply and to act from the public conception of justice which characterises the fair terms of cooperation and includes the conception of what is valuable in human life.
In short, ladies and gentlemen, society forms a compact that determines how it is going to run itself, what values are important and the context thereof. We decided at the time that the dignity of human life was paramount. Everything that we have done in the past 20 years has been in furtherance of this goal.
Everything has been in furtherance of worker rights and for their safety and good health. Where we have faltered, we shall rise again and do what is right. But we have a sense of good propelling us forward. This is how we move South Africa forward and continue to weave the good story.
I thank you.
