07 Mar Labour stability crucial to SA’s economic goals
Labour stability crucial to SA”s economic goals Establishing open communication and labour stability among South African industries is crucial to SA”s ability to meet the economic objectives set out by the National Planning Committee”s (NPC) vision for 2030, according to Chris Jacobs, Director at OIM. Image: Gallo Images Labour Minister Nelisiwe Oliphant Video Labour brokers destroy decent work (Video) Jacobs said that the South African economy could not afford costs such as those incurred recently by Implats and Exarro as a result of widespread industrial action and striking. Businesses should establish open communication channels to foster productive relationships and enable grievances to be dealt with immediately, and this was particularly important in the current challenging economic environment, he said. “In times like these, we invariably see an increase in strike action. However, these strikes result in irrevocable damage to the economy and individual workers. While it is the constitutional right of workers to make their grievances known, industry needs to create partnerships that can facilitate this communication process in a way that is not to the detriment of the entire economy,” he said. Jacobs referred to the recent violent strike action at the Implats mine in Rustenburg, where three mine workers had died and the mine had lost 120,000 ounces in production. The mine accounted for approximately 60% of Implats” output and the company recently warned that April output could be affected by as much as 50%. Implats had lost approximately R2.4 billion so far as a result of the strike, he said. According to Jacobs, in the aftermath of this kind of strike, it was crucial that businesses and unions took immediate corrective measures to establish stability. Although this was reactive it should have been used to become proactive to try to prevent such actions from happening again. Jacobs gave an example of a similar situation where oim assisted a client in moving from violent protest to lasting peace and stability. Jacobs stressed that these measures needed to be sustainable in order to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. “This relies on establishing the correct relationships and having the right culture in place that encourages people to come forward with their grievances. It is a process and not an occurrence,” he said. The first step to opening communication channels was to establish the willingness of the various parties involved to improve the relationship, he said. “Following a dispute, there is a lot of baggage and antagonistic feelings to work through and there is always a level of mistrust. Especially in a case like this where there has been serious intimidation. This must be dealt with immediately,” Jacobs said. If the parties showed a willingness to engage, Jacobs said various bi-lateral discussions with all role players should prepare the groundwork for continued discussion. “This includes establishing ground rules, and agreeing on a common goal for the relationship going forward,” he said. Following this, all key leaders and representatives of the various role players should come together to discuss issues in more detail and develop principles on how to repair the relationships. Mindsets needed to be shifted from confrontation to co-operation, he said. All of this needs to happen within the framework that the constitution and labour law provides. “It”s important to shift the focus to the intent of the labour laws. Often people tend to focus on the letter of its content instead,” he said. Jacobs explained that the intent of South African labour laws was first to achieve labour peace and stability, second to achieve social justice and social responsibility, third to achieve economic development and productivity, fourth to democratise the workplace, and finally, to develop skills. “As soon as business managers and union leaders understand and take ownership of the fact that the laws are designed to create prosperity and protect the integrity of both parties, a mutually beneficial and sustainable agreement can be reached. Therefore it is important to also develop understanding for roles and responsibilities of the different role players,” he said. Based on this agreement, a “partnership forum” should be created whereby these discussions between all role players could continue on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. In order to ensure the stability of the new relationship, Jacobs recommended that a code of conduct was agreed upon – as well as a monitoring mechanism so that any destructive behaviour could be picked up and dealt with immediately. Once leaders had developed this partnership, it should also be established among all employees. Jacobs said that this was done by engaging these employees in workshops to develop their own understanding and canvass their buy-in to the code of conduct. “By creating a business culture of mutual understanding, you keep people informed and engaged. This culture of understanding establishes an environment where employees know where and how to address grievances or concerns. If this is carefully managed, protracted and costly strikes could be avoided,” concluded Jacobs.