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CONTENTS
by Claire Horton and Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen BLUE collar, white collar,part-time workers, independent contractors, hawkers. The world of world in South Africa is changing dramatically. Gone are the days when having a job meant working for one employer, with job security and the prospect of promotion. Those who have jobs find that their work is becoming less secure. Independent contracting,casualisation, self-employment,day-labour and part-time work are the new ways people earn their livelihoods. Unions need torespond to these changes. Faced with the challenges of globalisation (which is characterised by heightened international competition and technological change), firms have tried to increase short-run profits by cutting their labour costs. Regular, full-time employees have been replaced with atypical workers. Employers are no longer using internal labour markets as a source of flexibility. Instead, they are using atypical workers toadjust the size and composition of the labour force to respond to changes in external economic conditions. The shift from manufacturing to service industries has made it easier for them to adopt these strategies. Trends:In South Africa, two trends are emerging:
Statistics from the 1999 October Household Report show that employment increased by 10% between 1998 and 1999. How is this possible, when Statistics South Africa's own formal sector data shows job losses in virtually all the formal sectors of the economy? Almost 500 000 jobs were lost in the four years between March 1996 and March 2000. The reason for the increase in overall employment figures is that, while formal sector (generally better quality) jobs have shrunk, people are finding employment in the informal sector or working as informal employees in the formal sector. Better quality jobs are being replaced with worse-paying, insecure jobs. There is also the little discussed, but growing, relationship between the formal and informal sectors of the economy. In some sectors, formal sector activity is being 'informalised'. For example, clothing factories are outsourcing production to 'home-workers'. Certain transport activities are being outsourced to former employees. More establishments and workers now fall outside the scope of the bargaining councils than within them. This raises an important question: How do we define a job? Can we really say that survivalist activities are employment? It all depends on our definition. If we say that a real job means things like career pathing, training and skills development and non-wage benefits, then survivalist activity is not real employment. If, on the other hand, we simply use a certain level of income, or the payment of income tax, our definition would include more activities. Even so, many activities that are regarded as employment earn below the poverty datum line. More women than men work as casuals and part-time workers. Black women, in particular, are found more often that men in atypical employment relationships. They also tend to be concentrated in the lowest-quality atypical jobs. In 1998, black people made up approximately 80% of informal labour. Women make up 60% of informal sector workers. Domestic workers - the large majority of whom are women - represent 30% of all those working in the informal sector. In 1998, 68% of domestic workers earned less than R500 per month. The public sectorAtypical work is spurred on by the restructuring of public service delivery. Government officials argue that private sector involvement in public services will improve delivery and introduce efficiency. However, many experiences point to an actual reduction in efficiency once the private sector becomes involved. Private sector involvement changes workers' lives dramatically. Some workers find themselves with a new employer. Others are retrenched. Hard-won worker gains are often eroded.
Low-graded workers are at the most risk. Cleaning, laundry and security are often the first to be targeted for private sector involvement. StrategiesTrade unions need to adopt a new approach to engage effectively with public sector contracting. They need to have the organisational capacity to move with workers through these changes. This will mean tracking workers, reorganising them, and breaking new ground. Public policies are also needed to improve the job quality and provide greater protection for atypical workers. These should include:
Atypical work not only undermines the strength of trade unions by causing divisions at the workplace, it also imposes long-term social costs. As the formal sector continues to shrink, it is imperative that unions start to organise atypical and informal workers or face being weakened. Claire Horton is the Co-ordinator of the Labour Standards Programme at NALEDI. Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen is the Co-ordinator of the Public Sector Programme at NALEDI.
by Claire Horton Development and the pace of job creation depend on the level of investment providing, of course, that such investment is job creating and not labour replacing. Expanding the productive capacity of the economy through rising investment is crucial to create more jobs. Since the mid 1970s, when gross domestic fixed investment as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) averaged more than 25%, South Africa has been experiencing a decline in investment. Investment is currently around 16% of GDP. This is far below what is needed to address the current high levels of unemployment. GEAR was unveiled as a strategy to encourage more foreign and domestic investment in South Africa. Despite its conservative policies, it has failed to meet its set targets for increasing investment. Investment rose strongly in the first three years after the democratic elections. However, from 1997-1999, private sector investment declined by 7%. This has been accompanied by a rising outflow of capital. The graph which follows shows that, while capital has flowed into South Africa since the elections, there has been an increase in money moving out of the country. Much of the investment which has come in has taken the form of portfolio investment and not foreign direct investment, which is necessary for job creation. Even when limited foreign direct investment has taken place, it has been used to buy existing assets through the restructuring and unbundling of large South African conglomerates. Investment and jobsA recent study by the National Institute for Economic Policy (NIEP) looks at the effect of investment on job creation. It is important to note that this study only examines the direct relationship between investment and jobs. It does not include indirect effects. It is likely that a rise in investment will have an even greater impact on employment creation if indirect effects such as changes in output, rising consumption demand, etc are included. The study finds that there is a positive relationship between investment and employment. At the level of the total economy, a 10% increase in investment will lead to an 8% increase in employment over the short term. The effects obviously differ from sector to sector. The most positive relationship is found in manufacturing, where a 10% increase in investment is likely to lead to a 12% increase in employment. By comparison, the same increase in investment in the service sector (construction, financial services, etc) will only lead to a 5% increase in employment. Investment StrikeAn ‘investment strike’ refers to a situation where business decides not to invest its profits in the productive assets required to maintain the economy. Instead, it either moves capital offshore or increases payments to top managers and shareholders. The enormity of the unemployment problem (South Africa currently has around six million unemployed) points to the urgent need for policies which will have a positive impact on investment. One such policy instrument is the use of prescribed assets (which were widely used by the apartheid government). Prescribed assets can play a role both in increasing the overall level of investment in an economy and in channelling this investment in particular directions. They can be a useful tool in directing capital to more labour intensive sectors - those with higher employment multipliers and more labour intensive production processes.
All figures are taken from the SA Reserve Bank Quarterly Bulletin.
How feasible is a basic income grant?by Ravi Naidoo During the 1998 Presidential Job Summit, labour (COSATU, FEDUSA and NACTU) called for a basic income grant to be paid to all South Africans. In terms of the Job Summit agreement, government agreed to explore the implementation of a basic income grant as part of a comprehensive social security system. Many employers and conservatives in government opposed the notion of such a grant, saying either that it is too expensive or that it will make people too lazy to look for work. ProblemsThe social security system we have inherited is not comprehensive. It is inadequate both in terms of width (many people do not qualify) and depth (it does not bring people out of poverty). It was never designed to benefit all South Africans. More than 13,8 million people in the poorest 40% per cent of households do not qualify for any social security transfers. These are generally the poor households without old people, no one with a disability grant and no children. Current initiatives, such as the reform of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the implementation of the child maintenance system, are piece-meal and are not aimed at putting a comprehensive system in place. There are also serious administrative weaknesses. By January 2000, the take-up rate of the child support system was less than 10%, even though its stated target is three million in five years.d How would a basic income grant work?sic income grant work? All South Africans would receive a basic income grant (eg R100 per month). To ensure that the system targets the poor and unemployed, those earning more than a certain amount (eg R3 000 per month) would pay back the amount they receive as a tax. People earning, say, more than R5 000 a month would pay back double what they receive (amounting to a R1 200 per annum ‘solidarity tax’). Who would qualify? All citizens would qualify for the grant and there would be no means testing. How will money be claimed back from higher income earners? Through the SA Revenue Service. Administration would be easy, as people earning above a certain threshold will have their basic income recouped. And people at an even higher level of income would pay a solidarity tax. Wouldn’t the new system create an incentive for people not to work (ie a poverty trap)? No. Both the poor and working poor will benefit from the basic income grant. As everyone receives the grant, the system creates no incentive for people not to work. It thereby avoids the problems experienced by ‘welfare states’ - for example in Europe, where the possibility of welfare creates a disincentive for people to work. The basic income grant is truly a component of developmental social welfare, instead of creating dependency. What would the social and economic benefits be? It contributes to making people economically active by giving them access to cash resources; it contributes to improved health status and improved ability of children to learn at school; it stabilises consumption spending and demand - particularly increased demand for locally produced goods. International experience shows that basic social security is important to promote economic growth. Why give the grant to individuals, rather than poor households? The key advantage of an individual grant is that it helps alleviate poverty; it favours large households - which tend to be poorer - as they pool income; it leads to a more equal intra-household distribution of income - empowering women and younger people. It is particularly appropriate for South Africa, as we experience a variety of forms of family structure, and not just Western style nuclear families. What mechanisms could be used for pay-outs and how can we avoid corruption? The basic income grant could be paid into people’s accounts, thus bringing people into the formal financial system. This could be through the banking system or through a reformed and extended Post Office Bank or community banks. This will also help expand financial infrastructure into rural areas. How would the new grant link with existing social security transfers? It is recommended that the State Old Aged Pension (SOAP) system, which has a proven track-record as government’s most effective poverty alleviation programme, remain in place. When the new basic income grant system is implemented, the amount paid in SOAPs should be adjusted by the amount of the new basic income grant, to see to it that old aged recipients receive the same net transfer. With regard to the Child Support Grant, it is recommended that this system be incorporated into the new basic grant system. People will begin receiving the basic income grant at birth and, in line with the existing child support grant system, these transfers will follow the child and are not bound to family/household structures. With regard to disability grants, it is recommended that, like the SOAP, these transfers be reduced by the amount of the basic income grant. Further clarity is needed as to the definition of disability and how this definition is applied. How much would the new system cost? Exact calculations still have to be made. A lot depends on the amount paid to each person. The initial estimate for a basic income grant of R100 per month, assuming a take up rate of 75% within six years, was R8 billion for 1998-9. The cost of administering the new system could lead to savings, as there will be no costs associated with means-testing, etc. Administratively, it is likely to be cheaper than the current system and the risk of corruption would be reduced.
Organising informal sector workersby Pat Horn The informal sector is difficult to define. Not because it isn’t there, but because the types of work relationships and economic dependencies which exist in this sector are so varied that most definitions which effectively capture some of its characteristics exclude many others. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India describes informal sector workers as those who: earn a living through their own labour or small business. They do not obtain regular salaried employment and welfare benefits like workers in the organised sector. They are the unprotected labour force of our country...these are the workers of the unorganised sector. (SEWA 1999 annual report) Because trade union constitutions have very specific definitions and because the scope of members is usually restricted to permanent employees, most workers in the informal sector have remained unorganised. As globalisation bites deeper and the number of permanent workers decline, formal sector unions are becoming weaker. For some time, the unions have tried to get laws passed to outlaw certain forms of informal sector work, particularly very exploitative forms of casual work. The intention was to protect workers from such exploitation. However, they have not succeeded in stemming the growth of the informal sector. Casualisation and an increase in flexible work have contributed to this growth. Today, there are many millions of vulnerable informal sector workers throughout the world who work under these conditions. Because they are generally not unionised, they do not have collective organisational powers or protection. The challenge to the trade union movement in this age of globalisation is to protect these workers by organising them. How to organiseThis is easier said than done. Last year, COSATU decided to organise workers in the informal sector, but there does not appear to be a clear plan as to how to go about it, except in the garment, textile and leather sectors, where SACTWU has now devised a strategy for organising industrial home-workers. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) also finally decided last year to make a start in this area of organisation, and has established an Informal Sector Task Force to take this further. A number of challenges will have to be confronted:
Practical suggestionsDetailed research is needed into the informal sector, its nature, dynamics and characteristics and its contribution to local and national economies. This will help formal sector unions deal with the definitional problems which have been an obstacle to tackling the organisation of the informal sector. There is a global network already working in this area called WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising) which has commissioned path-breaking research and statistical information about the informal sector. It aims to support organisational activity among workers in the informal sector through inputs from organisations already working in the field. It would be important to link up with WIEGO and extend its work. Other suggestions
These unions have developed new forms of collective bargaining with municipalities, traditional leaders and other authorities who control the territory or resources used by these women in their work. SEWA has also developed informal sector women’s co-operatives and rural development programmes which have significantly impacted on poverty and created new employment in rural areas.
International dynamicsMaybe the above suggestions fly in the face of traditional trade union practices. Is it realistic to think that such apparently maverick ideas could achieve more than the more than 100-years-old international trade union movement, with its tried and tested methods? A close examination of the dynamics of the international trade union movement, with its dominance by the ‘north’ over the ‘south’ arising from the emergence of trade unions in the north in response to industrialisation, suggests that the answers to this current global challenge need to come from the ‘south’, where the informal sector workforce now predominates in most of its forms after globalisation hit the most vulnerable workers first. Innovative organisational strategies to deal with this global challenge have to emanate from the trade union movements of the developing world, which will have to assert their dominance and lead the way in this area of organisation. In order to rise to the challenge, the trade unions of the south need to break away from their old mindset and transform themselves. Pat Horn is General Secretary of the Self-Employed Women’s Union (SEWU) and Co-ordinator of the International Alliance of Street Vendors (StreetNet). LESSONS The Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) first started organising subsistence farmers after structural adjustment programmes caused its membership to drop from 130 000 to 30 000. It started experimenting with agricultural development projects for members to expand their economic activities on the land. The union has learnt many positive and negative lessons about organising workers in the informal sector. The Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU) is the biggest affiliate of the Ghana TUC. It is a general industrial union, whose work is separated into sectors. The union has started new sectors where informal work predominates, the first being hairdressers, followed by dressmakers. It has now launched a more general organising drive to expand into new sectors of informal work. The Ghana TUC committed itself to organising workers in the informal sector in the early 1990s. It is now a requirement that all affiliates organise informal sector workers who are linked to their scope of organisation, if necessary adjusting their constitutions in order to do so. The end result? The retrenched worker and her/his family will be out on the street, unable to find work or support from a weakened public service. But the newspaper headlines will proclaim: 'Right sizing and exit management good for flexibility, but concern over separation costs'. Now, what is the 'new person' supposed to make of all this?
The feminisation of povertyby Liesl Orr Women’s undervalued status in the formal economy and unrecognised unpaid work renders them more vulnerable to job insecurity and poor working conditions. While South Africa grapples with its mounting employment crisis, it is necessary to analyse the problem from a gender perspective. What is women’s work? The orthodox economic definition only considers the market value of work performed by individuals in an economy. But women’s work is really the result of a gender division of labour, which means that women have two distinct spheres of work:
Women’s responsibility for reproductive work stems from nature-based arguments that this work is an extension of a woman’s nature - that she is more caring and nurturing than a man is. Opponents of this argument maintain that women are socialised to play these reproductive roles. Socialisation also shapes the types of productive work that women do. Women tend to predominate in areas that are seen as an extension of their ‘nurturing’ qualities, such as the nursing and teaching professions. The two main consequences of a gender division of labour are the amount of time that women spend working - the cliche that 'a woman’s work is never done' comes to mind - and an inequality in wage distribution as a result of occupational segregation. GlobalisationHow has globalisation affected women’s work? Various global trends have had contradictory effects on women’s work. In most regions, an increasing proportion of the labour force is female. From a positive point of view, women have been integrated in the formal economy. This has improved their financial status and resulted in more women in certain professions and in management positions. However, a far larger proportion of women have been negatively affected. Increased female employment has not resulted in better access to higher paid jobs, nor has it mitigated discrimination. Studies show that there has been a decline in labour standards and occupations for women and a noticeable shift from formal to informal work. Furthermore, women are often the last to benefit from job expansion and usually the first to suffer the consequences of job contraction. This is particularly true in Africa. The increase in women’s employment is referred to as ‘feminisation of labour’. It is driven by the private sector’s desire for low wages, labour control, productivity, and flexible labour - which women provide through their predominance in temporary and part-time work as a result of their position in society, the economy and the home. This kind of flexibility does not help workers balance work and family responsibilities. It only benefits employers. Globalisation also acts as a mechanism to propel women into the more insecure sectors of the economy. Feminisation of povertyGlobally, women bear the brunt of poverty. South Africa is no exception. Apartheid entrenched patterns of poverty and inequality, which carry a stark racial and regional dimension. But the experience of poverty is not just dependent on where one lives or what one’s race is. It is also dependent on one’s gender. African rural women are the most deeply affected by poverty. Their position reflects the extreme lack of equality in our society. One measure of poverty is access to basic services such as running water on site, electricity for a main lighting source and telecommunications. Only 27% of African households in non-urban areas have running water on site, 45% have electricity for a main lighting source and 5,3% have a telephone or cell phone in their dwelling. The implication of these very low levels of service-provision is that African rural women spend the majority of their time on unpaid work tending to reproductive responsibilities. Contractionary economic and fiscal policies like GEAR actually increase women’s work, because the quality and extent of service provision are reduced and privatisation leads to an increase in the costs of services to the public. OrganiseWorkers are best able to challenge the destructive effects of globalisation where they are well organised and mobilised. However, this requires new forms of organising. The traditional work place is being eroded and being replaced by new, dispersed and isolated work places. Women are particularly susceptible to these new irregular work forms and to the devastating impact of poverty, which is exacerbated by privatisation and public sector cutbacks. The union movement in South Africa needs to reconceptualise its methods of organising so that it deliberately goes out and incorporates marginalised women workers and fights for the extension of social security and protection. Liesl Orr is the Co-ordinator of the Women and Work project at NALEDI.
The future of labour movementsby Ravi Naidoo ‘Globalisation is upon us, the end is nigh’. This is the gloomy prediction of many on the Left, as they contemplate the demise of labour movements. Is there any reason for optimism? Despite globalisation’s pace and scale, is there evidence that labour movements are rising up to confront the challenges? At the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) Congress in April, the new AFL-CIO President, John Sweeney, gave a fighting speech, taking the battle to multinationals, even those of the United States (US). Sweeney’s election in 1995 signaled the advent of major progressive change in the American labour movement. The American case is just one example of what is happening to labour movements around the world. While the developed nation labour movements are not about to become revolutionary, it cannot be denied that there has been a major shift in perspective. It is the pain of neo-liberal globalisation that is causing this shift. Today there are one million unemployed workers in Japan, a country where unemployment didn’t exist ten years ago. In the US, the incomes of the bottom 80% have stagnated, while working hours have increased. In the European Union, unemployment is on the increase and social security systems are being trimmed, increasing working people’s levels of insecurity. These changes are forcing previously lethargic unions to get active, militant and more conscious of the need for international solidarity. Failing the testTo many, the seemingly ‘irresistible’ onslaught of globalisation poses unions with a tough choice: try to hold out against the inevitable or make a deal and be part of managing neo-liberal globalisation. This is a pessimistic view. In a world where one multinational corporation has more wealth than half of all developing countries, neo-liberal globalisation is failing the test of social legitimation. Workers and their unions, often the most organised social formation within civil society, need to be at the forefront of the struggle for alternatives. The struggleThis struggle is aided by an understanding that globalisation is not a natural phenomenon. Rather it is the result of a conscious effort by multinational corporations, multilateral institutions and national governments of developed countries to advance the interests of investors and the wealthy. Tackling neo-liberal globalisation means tackling multinationals and governments that put ‘profits before people’. To some extent, this movement has already started. The Seattle protests and the failure of the WTO to come up with an agenda for a new round of trade negotiations in December 1999 was a stunning defeat for the worldwide coalition of corporate and political elites that have so far made unregulated trade and finance the single goal of global economic policy. The protests were a reminder that multinationals and their supporters can be challenged. Equally importantly, they have had trade unions at their centre. And increasingly, trade unions are working constructively with human rights and environmental NGOs to counter the negative aspects of globalisation. Alongside this growing mobilisation, the ICFTU is now recruiting leading union movements in the developing South. More and more, multinational corporations will be exposed to multinational bargaining pressures from a better co-ordinated international labour movement. Indeed, the widespread supply chains inherent in multinational production introduce new vulnerabilities for corporations, exposing them to international campaigns. StrategiesTo sustain this forward international momentum, however, unions have to engage in two ‘internal’ struggles:
The challenge for the international labour movement is to begin to build a feasible agenda, now, for putting people before profits. With this in mind, the ICFTU launched its campaign for ‘Globalising Social Justice’, appropriately at its Congress in a democratic South Africa, where 15 years ago few would have predicted the rapid demise of apartheid and rise of democracy. What better evidence do we need to embrace optimism as our banner?
SIGNS OF THE FUTURE The recent experience of the Australian maritime workers is a case in point. A major port company decided to replace its existing dockside workforce with new low paid, vulnerable contract workers. With the full support of the right-wing national government, it forcibly removed workers from their posts. Unions around the world were mobilised on the side of the Australian workers. They refused to handle any cargo that came through that port. Australian communities joined with the workers. Soon the international agencies were involved in this protracted and heated struggle, until, eventually, both the company and their national government backed down. The maritime campaign, which took place only a year ago, is a sign of how future labour struggles could be fought and won.
A struggle for teamworkHighveld Steel workers: fighting for democracy on the shop floor. by Karl von Holdt Management in some South African companies are following international trends and introducing teamwork on the shop floor. Trade unions usually resist this because of the threat it poses to workers' solidarity. But at Highveld Steel , NUMSA shopstewards engaged in a struggle for teamwork as a new form of democracy in the workplace. The struggle for teamwork at Highveld Steel took place on the tap floors in the iron plant. Six tap floors are located beneath the six furnaces in the iron plant. The job of the tappers is to tap the molten iron and guide it into giant pots for transportation to the steel plant. Conditions of work on the tap floor are tough and dangerous. Workers have to work in thick protective suits because of the heat of the molten iron and the danger of spills. Heat exhaustion sometimes causes workers to collapse, and workers are injured and sometimes die in spills. Leaking call gas has also caused fatalities. The tap floor was a harsh working environment, not only because of the physical conditions, but also because of the treatment by supervisors. According to one of the tappers, 'it was a white-dominated working site, it was an apartheid workplace.' Most of the tappers were illiterate migrant workers. Many had worked on the tap floors for long periods of their working lives. Each tapping crew was led by a baas-boy or induna. When the furnace operator decided that the smelt was ready for tapping, he informed the foreman, who then instructed the baas-boy to start tapping. The baas-boy then instructed the members of his crew to get ready, while he drilled open the tap-hole. The tapping team members were graded as labourers on grade 14, while the baas-boy was on grade 13. GrievancesAbsenteeism was high on the tap floors, and, after they had finished tapping their furnace, tappers in one crew were frequently instructed to join another crew and assist with tapping a second furnace. This was a sore point with workers, who felt entitled to rest between taps because their work was so hard. The tappers felt that they should earn higher wages because of the harsh conditions of their work. During 1990 they launched a series of small stoppages demanding to discuss their problems with their manager. Eventually they were promoted - the tappers by one grade, and the baas-boy by three. This angered the tappers even more. They demanded to also be promoted three grades. Although the baas-boy was supposed to open the tap-hole, all the tappers knew how to perform this task. It had long been a custom on the tap floor that if the baas-boy was not present, the foreman would instruct another member of the team to do this. Now they refused, on the grounds that they were not paid to perform this task. ResolutionIt was at this point that the shopstewards intervened. The tap floors occupied a key place in the production process. Any delay here brought the entire steel plant to a standstill, so management was under intense pressure to resolve the workers' grievances. The shopstewards proposed to the tappers that work should be transformed so that they worked as self-directed work teams. Their job descriptions should be expanded to include drilling open the tap-hole for tapping, using a special gun for shooting open the tap-hole when it was blocked, repairing brickwork, minor welding work, and checking and replacing the safety screens. All tappers should be trained in these tasks and in leadership and team skills and upgraded to grade 10. There should no longer be a baas-boy, but each team should elect its own leader and this position should be rotated. The workers on the tap floors agreed with these proposals. It seemed that they would not only satisfy their demand for more money, but also alter the racial and skill hierarchies of the apartheid workplace. At about this time, a more liberal and innovative manager was shifted to the iron plant. He was more open to co-operating with the shopstewards, and welcomed innovative suggestions. He motivated to senior management why they should accept the shopstewards' proposals. Agreement was reached on a two-month training programme. While one shift was being trained, the other two each worked a 12-hour shift. TransformationThe new organisation of work on the tap floor was a radical break with the work organisation of the apartheid workplace regime. For most of the unskilled migrants on the tap floors, this was the first training they had received. Albert Makagula, a migrant shopsteward who had worked there for ten years said that: We only realised how well we do the job after we had been for training. The job is the same, nothing changed, but what has improved now is the sense that we all have equal knowledge about the job and everyone knows what to do, and there are no conflicting ideas on the job that we are doing. That is the fulfilling thing, that everyone knows exactly what to do and why, and that's why it's better now. The training, upgrading and increased pay for tappers implied a recognition of the skills, experience and importance of a group of black workers who had been least acknowledged in the apartheid workplace. The tappers also won the right to 'job ownership', defined by a job in a particular team on a specific tap floor. Tappers could no longer be instructed to assist in another team whose members were absent. Instead, workers from the preceding and following shifts would be requested to work overtime - 12-hour shifts rather than 8-hour shifts - to cover absenteeism. This meant increased overtime pay. ChallengeThe creation of self-directed teams was a direct challenge to the racial structure of power centred on the foremen. Management resistance to removing the foremen suggests how important they were to the apartheid workplace regime. Mosi Nhlapo, the shopsteward chairperson, described these negotiations: We said, OK, remove this foreman, because when there are problems, when there is spillage, this foreman just stands there and says, 'Werk! Werk! Werk!' - but he has got no idea how to do this work himself. It was a tough battle. Management said, 'No, this foreman is important.' We said, 'He has got no role here.' Eventually management agreed and the foreman was removed. In Makagula's view, the importance of the new way of working was that workers could control their work and protect one another from the racism and victimisation of management. Before the change, 'the manager would interfere with our work in many ways - even though we knew what we were supposed to do'. Makagula described the new way of working as 'democracy in the workplace' because there was no longer harassment from white people. Instead of being oppressed by the foreman, workers could develop their own leadership skills. Another tap floor shopsteward, Hendrik Nkosi, commented on how workers' attitude to work had changed with the change in the structure of power: The foreman had to assist the baas-boy because the people didn't do the job properly - not to say they didn't know the job, but the baas-boy was driving the people and the people were fighting the bosses. Now people are doing the job properly, the people are happy about this system. They assist the team leader, whereas they never helped the baas-boy. I don't see the foreman's job at the tap floor now, he's got nothing to do. DisciplineNkosi also described how the team tried to resolve disciplinary problems by sitting together to discuss issues such as absenteeism or poor performance. If that didn't solve the problem the leader would call some members from another team to assist, or even involve a shopsteward. This was a process of trying to solve the problem through discussion rather than punishment. Management's disciplinary procedures remained in place if the problem could not be solved by the workers. Nkosi stressed that this approach also protected workers from managerial discipline. 'Out of Egypt'The new organisation of work on the tap floors was not based on a re-organisation of work and production in the entire plant, but was rather like a 'liberated zone' of workers' control carved out of the apartheid workplace regime. This made it vulnerable to erosion over time. Despite this limitation, the union was able to combine the traditional militancy and solidarity of the tap floor workers with its new vision to transform work on the tap floors. There were three critical factors in the success of this project:
As one of the iron plant shopstewards put it: 'We have taken the workers out of their Egypt, now they are in Jerusalem.' The racial hierarchy of skill, income and power inherited from apartheid was dismantled and replaced with the collective control by black workers of their work. The transformation of work nurtured workers' solidarity, democracy and leadership skills. Work teams elected and rotated their own leaders, removing the racist and authoritarian power of the foreman. Workers endeavoured to resolve problems of discipline and performance collectively, building their collective solidarity and protecting one another against managerial discipline. As another tapper put it, 'We have established the new South Africa in the workplace'. Karl von Holdt is the co-ordinator of NALEDI' s Workplace Transformation Unit. This is a shortened version of an article which first appeared in the SA Labour Bulletin.
Dutch multinationals in South Africaby Mawethu Vilana Multinational corporations (MNCs) are a central driving force behind neo-liberal globalisation. These corporations are usually centred in developed countries, with strong operations in developing countries. NALEDI recently undertook a study of Dutch MNCs for the Dutch labour movement, the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, (FNV). The study covered company profile, market share and competitiveness, labour conditions and standards, environmental policy and reinvestment in South Africa. Unfortunately, many companies were unwilling to participate in the research and we were only able to talk to seven. The firms were predominately in the petroleum, chemical and plastics sectors. EmploymentIn 1996, the top 20 MNCs in South Africa directly employed only 116 145 workers. While they do not contribute directly to substantial job creation, the MNCs do have extensive forward and backward linkages in the economy. In this way, they add to employment levels. This is counteracted, however, by the MNC tendency to utilise and promote a 'two-tier labour market'. Employment ranged from workforces of 38 to 4 000 in the Dutch MNCs studied, of whom 60% were semi-skilled or unskilled workers. As in most companies, employment in an MNC does not seem to be particularly secure. Most of the firms had experienced retrenchment or rationalisation over the past three years. Most also predict that they will need fewer employees in the future. Some of the firms did, however, indicate that they would recruit new employees for expanding operations. Several firms stressed that the types of jobs which they will make available in the future will be more temporary, linked to contract work and with more flexible working arrangements. Wage ratesWage rates tended to be higher than the average settlement for the relevant sector. However, extensive use is being made of labour brokers and subcontracting, where lower rates of pay are generally the norm.
Note: All rates provided by management and unions MNC Wages versus Sector AverageFirms have tended to split their core and non-core operations. Services such as cleaning, catering, transport, and security have generally been the first to be contracted out. Shell has also contracted out maintenance. Union representatives say that wages and conditions of work in subcontracted firms are below those of full-time employees. BenefitsAll full time employees were provided with medical aid, a pension fund and skills training. Most worked a 45-hour week. The table on the next page illustrates the extent to which companies provide non-wage benefits to employees. A rather surprising finding was that two companies - Mammoet and Philips - had no union organising their workforce. The quality of the relationship between unions and MNCs also differed. Internatio-Muller and Unilever had good relationships with unions. However Shell's relationship with both CEPPAWU (COSATU) and SACWU (NACTU) was described as not being very good. Employment of black people and women was generally low. In one case, there were no women or black people among the full-time staff. While Shell appeared to have the highest percentage of black staff (30%), black women in management were a mere 2%. ProfileSeveral of the firms have been in the country for a long time and have established themselves in the local environment. Unilever and Shell have both been operating locally for almost a hundred years. Vopak and Mammoet only entered the country after the first democratic elections. All the firms have strong links to the Netherlands, with Shell and Unilever being 60:40 owned through equity on the Netherlands and London stock exchanges. All the other firms are Dutch-owned, with the exception of Van Leer, which has been largely acquired by Finnish interests.
Market shareMarket share of the companies that were examined raged from around 20% to about 40%. These high figures are a result of the MNC's access to their parent companies' technological developments, which are more advanced than many South African companies in their sectors. Most companies expressed the desire to have a multi-skilled workforce in the future because of advancements in technology. Environmental policyMost of the firms had environmental policies based on their parent companies' international environmental policy programme. For example, Shell and Unilever adopted their parent companies' environmental policy, while Mammoet was just recycling old oil and tyres without a programme or policy. TrendsThe results of the study can be summarised as follows:
NALEDI research reportThis research round-up lists recent NALEDI research and highlights forthcoming work Meeting housing needsThis report sets out to reassess housing delivery. It looks at the linkages between housing and the macro-economy. This requires an understanding of fiscal, financial and sustainability measures. The budget allocation for housing has decreased by 16% in real terms since the 1997/1998 financial year. In spite of government's attempt to protect its value, the housing subsidy has also declined in real terms. The primary intervention to meet the shortfall in budgets is the creation of a low-income housing lender market. Government has established intermediaries to provide wholesale finance and guarantee functions. In the future, most low-income housing will be financed through a mixture of subsidies and loans. Government has complemented these measures by supporting higher savings rates and low inflation, as opposed to increased investment. A combination of budget shortfalls and administrative weaknesses are leading to serious questions about the sustainability of the housing programme. For example, continued housing sprawl limits access to job opportunities and does not create the densities needed to start viable businesses. The government system for monitoring housing standards is extremely weak, and contractors are providing sub-standard housing. Improving housing delivery will require a multi-faceted and deliberate strategy. The key elements of such a strategy would include:
Organising informal workersThe informal sector makes a significant contribution to the economy. In many instances, it performs the role of a social security net. This report looks at informal workers, methods of organising these workers and the international organising experience. It argues that informal workers are not limited to the informal sector, but include increasing numbers of workers who provide services to the formal sector, but are employed through non-standard employment relationships. The report also analyses the characteristics of informal workers, focussing on the quality of jobs (such as hours of work and income) and union membership. It goes on to examine the international experience of organising informal sector workers, drawing out key experiences. Finally, it examines existing approaches within COSATU affiliates to organising informal workers, including the organisation of atypical workers. Globalising poverty: the gender dimensionThis report, which was written as a discussion paper for the COSATU National Gender Conference, analyses global economic trends and the unemployment crisis in South Africa from a gender perspective. The report argues that the majority of women are negatively affected by the current trends in the labour market, particularly job losses, privatisation, outsourcing and casualisation. The impact of these trends is two-fold:
Increasing poverty and public sector cutbacks have a greater impact on women's lives because it is their time and workload that is stretched to make up for losses in income and reduced access to services at the household level. The report concludes that the government's fiscal and macro-economic policies entrench gender inequality and should be revisited. It challenges trade unions to identify creative strategies for organising marginalised women workers.
NALEDI undertakes labour and economic research. Its main focus is policy research which will build the capacity of the labour movement to engage effectively with the challenges of our new society.NALEDI is an initiative of COSATU, but is controlled by an independent board. NALEDI's main focus areas are labour markets, economic, trade and industrial policy, union organisation and women and work. Our activities include the production of research reports and policy memos, facilitating workshops and training and library facilities and resources.
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