Gordhan: Labour reform needed

[BBSA]

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/08/15/gordhan-labour-reform-needed

South Africa may only create four million jobs by 2025 on its current growth trajectory unless it changes some labour policies, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says.

South Africa may only create four million jobs by 2025 on its current growth trajectory unless it changes some labour policies, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says.

“This is not enough to make a significant dent in unemployment,” the minister told an internal auditors conference in Johannesburg.

According to Statistics SA, South Africa's official unemployment rate currently stands at 25.7 percent.

Under the expanded definition of unemployment - which refers to people of working age without work and available to start work that week, but who had not looked for work in the four weeks before the Stats SA interview - 7,678,000 South Africans were unemployed.

The New Growth Path envisages the creation of five million jobs by 2010.

Gordhan suggested that South Africa might have to relax its labour laws in certain cases to grow jobs.

“We may have to change the way we see the labour dispensation in South Africa,” he said.

For example, a balance needed to be found to retain the jobs of the 10,000 people working at clothing factories in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, while still allowing them to earn a reasonable wage and keeping the factories open.

Factories in the area had threatened to close down and relocate to Lesotho or Botswana if they were forced to pay minimum wages.

Gordhan said laws might also have to be relaxed to allow young people to enter the workplace and gain skills and experience at lower wages, but not at the expense of people who already had jobs.

Unless such changes were made, “we will not be able to make the breakthrough we need to create jobs in South Africa,” Gordhan said.

Good luck explaining that to you fellow comrades, Gordhan

 

[Geriatrix]

 

[Hard Rain]

Gordhan suggested that South Africa might have to relax its labour laws in certain cases to grow jobs.

Wow, what an understatement. Real unemployment is closer to 40%. Many people in South Africa will never have a formal job in their lives. This bull**** has to stop. Abolish the minimum wage, allow employers and employees (and with the help of intermediaries like labour brokers and other associations) to mutually agree to contractual terms of employment and tell the unions to suck it. But I can dream, can't I?

 

[(@) (@) twister]

Those clothing shops in Newcastle they are talking about is the Taiwanese and Chinese shop owners.
They don't have a problem relocating their factories to another country where the labour is cheaper.
What this report don't tell you is how many of the people that was retrenched because of the factory closures, was actually willing to work for the offered payments.
It is the union bosses that are at fault for the 10000 job losses.

 

[Mbuzi]

Best solution to create jobs, declare Cosatu and its affiliates illegal, collectively they are responsible for majority of job losses

 

[The Philosopher]

Hard Rain, what can we do . No one wants to listen to reason. I just drove through Lesotho, from maseru to sani pass. It was the most underdeveloped country I have ever seen. Everyone is dirt poor and they still use ponies and herd boys and cattle operated ploughs. All the farming is subsistence farming, and the chief gives each new person a piece of land to grow stuff on. There are no property rights. The government owns everything. There is no hope for them. Where there were little market shops, they were owned and operated by chinese. It is so weird, going to one of the most remotest places in africa and finding a lone chinese running a shop.

On another note I cant believe that Gordhan actually realises and acknowledges that the labour laws are too strict. As BBSA said, good luck explaining that to the cosatu lemmings.

 

[Alan]

and remove the laws protecting the people from nasty corporate goons that will exploit them for personal enrichment!

 

[OMB]

so long as the ANC and COSATU remain in the same bed nothing will change.

 

[McSack]

Those clothing shops in Newcastle they are talking about is the Taiwanese and Chinese shop owners.
They don't have a problem relocating their factories to another country where the labour is cheaper.
What this report don't tell you is how many of the people that was retrenched because of the factory closures, was actually willing to work for the offered payments.
It is the union bosses that are at fault for the 10000 job losses.

Not only Taiwanese and Chinese shop owners. Mate of mine runs a family owned business in the rag trade. They used to have 3 factories (2 in the EC and one in KZN). Union action caused them to close down all 3 and they now only import from Asia and wholesale to local retail outlets. Works out cheaper, and is way more reliable. Added bonus is they have 3-4 [-]family holidays[/-] buying trips a year to India/China/Thailand/Vietnam and still make more profit

Anyway, those 800-odd employees can thank SACTWU for their current unemployed status because there are f-all jobs to be had in the areas where the factories used to be

 

[ToxicBunny]

McSack, that is ultimately the biggest problem with the Unions and their members, they don't seem to grasp that in this day and age, if I don't manufacture something in one location, it can be manufactured elsewhere, and sometimes cheaper. So if they push their luck in terms of wage increases and such, its easier for me to close down the factory and just import the goods from elsewhere.

Rather than their 10000 members having a job... their wage increase demands have now made 10000 members unemployed.

It is rather disturbing just how blinkered and narrow minded our unions can actually be.

 

[Tassidar]

McSack, that is ultimately the biggest problem with the Unions and their members, they don't seem to grasp that in this day and age, if I don't manufacture something in one location, it can be manufactured elsewhere, and sometimes cheaper. So if they push their luck in terms of wage increases and such, its easier for me to close down the factory and just import the goods from elsewhere.

Rather than their 10000 members having a job... their wage increase demands have now made 10000 members unemployed.

It is rather disturbing just how blinkered and narrow minded our unions can actually be.

It think it is more a case of don't care. Personally, I cannot see how one can be a union leader in this country and have any sense of ethics. Cosatu know that they are forcing factories to close, but by making a noise they give their union leaders power.

 

[McSack]

Well you see the union leaders get paid regardless. The poor fskrs who believe all the BS don't realise until it's too late that they are actually getting reamed . They have always been cannon fodder and they will always be just that ... cannon fodder
Unfortunately, the workforce is more interested in who makes the most noise and dances the best, than they care about actually thinking through the k@k that union bosses are telling them

 

[(@) (@) twister]

Not only Taiwanese and Chinese shop owners. Mate of mine runs a family owned business in the rag trade. They used to have 3 factories (2 in the EC and one in KZN). Union action caused them to close down all 3 and they now only import from Asia and wholesale to local retail outlets. Works out cheaper, and is way more reliable. Added bonus is they have 3-4 [-]family holidays[/-] buying trips a year to India/China/Thailand/Vietnam and still make more profit

Anyway, those 800-odd employees can thank SACTWU for their current unemployed status because there are f-all jobs to be had in the areas where the factories used to be

True, but in this case I was specifically refering to Newcastle, where most of the textile factories are Taiwanese or Chinese owned.
It is true that due to high wages/low productivity it's o lot cheaper to import clothing from the east than to manufacture it in SA.

 

[Ancalagon]

I think the unions think they are owed everything, for nothing, and that corporations have mega millions and can afford to pay much higher salaries. They also think that stricter labour laws make for better working conditions, when the reality is, if your labour laws are too strict, hiring slows down or stops, economic growth slows, and then everything gets more difficult for the labourers. Of course, trying to explain to a unionist that making it easier to fire someone also makes companies more likely to hire people would probably be next to impossible.

The irony is that only parastatals like Eskom and Telkom pay mega millions salaries to their top execs while pleading poverty to their workers.