19 October, 2009
Whether or not the South African National Assembly passes legislation to ban labour brokers is a question likely to be answered early in 2010. But there is little doubt that the matter has fast become the hot-button employment issue in the country, judging from the current intensity of the debate.
Following two days of raucous public hearings in Cape Town by the Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Labour in late August that firmly pitted political parties against one another, the debate whether to pass a ban or to impose tighter regulations on labour broking moved to four provinces in early October where parliamentary regional hearings were held.
And in between, the Congress of South African Unions (COSATU) weighed in strongly in favour of a ban at its Tenth National Congress and immediately launched a national campaign to ban the 25-billion-rand business in coordination with global labour’s World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October.
In COSATU’s congress declaration, the federation states, “… as part of the struggle for decent employment, we call for the elimination of the practice of labour broking.” At a press conference following the 21-24 September congress, General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said labour brokers often take up to 20% of a worker’s wages in fees.
Three weeks earlier, at the Assembly’s Portfolio Committee hearings, Vavi called the system a “social ill,” likening it to “HIV and AIDS or crime and corruption. It’s an arrangement made to take advantage of the weak and most vulnerable in a society.”
One of COSATU’s WDDW activities occurred on 6 October where 400 members of the affiliated Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) rallied in front of a postal centre in Ormonde. There, some 80% of the total workers are supplied by labour brokers. A CWU representative said eight labour brokers are used and what’s worse, he added, is that some of the postal managers are part-owners of the labour-broking agencies.
One such worker abused by the system and involved in the protest said he earns a monthly salary one-quarter of that of a permanent employee in the postal centre, while another said working in precarious employment is no better than being unemployed. “They use us like condoms. One mistake, you are out and they get another one in your place anyway.”
The ICEM affiliate, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), called on parliamentarians of the African National Congress (ANC) to use its majority to pass a law banning labour brokers. NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said under the latter-day apartheid employment system, the focus of employers is on labour agencies, not workers. “In a society with high levels of inequalities, it is a crisis to allow this system to flourish,” he said.
The political lines have been drawn in the debate. While most ANC legislators favour a ban, the business-friendly Democratic Alliance (DA) is on the defensive and merely calling for regulating labour broking. The fledging Congress of the People (COPE), with little political power following spin-off from the ANC, has been relatively silent on the issue, but is believed to favour tighter regulation rather than an outright ban.
The business lobby says 500,000 people in South African are employed through labour brokers, but it is believed the real number could be triple that. The lobby does admit that of 6,000 labour brokers in the country, only 3,000 of them are properly registered.
In neighbouring Namibia, labour brokers were banned in 2008. But the industry and business lobby has now challenged that law on constitutional grounds, something South African business interests would likely do as well if a ban is passed.
On 27 August, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), together with its South African affiliate, the Building and Construction Allied Workers’ Union, held a forum in Johannesburg entitled “Multi-Sectoral Conference on Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010,” aimed primarily at work issues in preparation for South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Construction Coordinator Isaac Ntshangase pointed out that 32% of the country’s building and construction industry is carried out using informal workers. The conference passed a resolution calling for a ban on labour brokers and condemned the sub-standard wages and work conditions common in subcontracting arrangements.
Whether or not section 198 of South Africa’s Labour Relations Act of 1995 gets amended to ban labour brokers totally, or if a compromise is struck placing tighter regulations on the practice, is an open question right now. But there is little question that some form of legislative action will result, which will be good news to the global union forces that are now marshalling efforts to rollback non-sustaining work through labour-hire agencies and indirect employment.