SAFTU rejects Labor Laws Amendment Bill – SABC News

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has rejected the Labor Law Amendment Bill. The federation says the amendments, if passed, would threaten workers’ livelihoods.

The proposed amendments to the Labor Relations Act received the approval of the social agents of the National Economic Development Labor Council (Nedlac). SAFTU says section 77 will affect workers’ right to strike and formal hearings will also cease to exist if the employer wants to fire employees.

SAFTU has described the proposed amendments to the Industrial Relations Act as an attack on the livelihoods of the working class. The federation is part of Nedlac’s social partners, which has moved to endorse the amendments.

“With the proposed changes, employers are not required to hold a formal disciplinary hearing before sanctioning or dismissing an employee. No rights for new and young workers on layoffs. During the first six months of their employment, newly hired workers under the age of 30 will not have the same protection as other workers against unfair dismissal, except where it is considered an “automatic unfair dismissal”. The attack on the national minimum wage. to reduce the cost of labor, employers want to change the national minimum wage figure to include all the benefits a worker receives. Attacks on the right to strike. The capitalists want to stop the continued use of Article 77 strikes, as is currently the case,” says SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

Nedlac is a platform through which government, labour, business and community organizations seek to cooperate on issues. SAFTU says workers had different proposals, which it says were rejected.

“SAFTU, COSATU, FEDUSA AND NACTU had demanded that section 189A be amended to extend the facilitation period from 60 to 120 days to ensure that reduction is made as a last resort. Business and government rejected the proposal. We had proposed that article 41 of the BCEA increases severance pay from 1 to 4 months”.

Once Nedlac has submitted the amendments to the Department of Labour, the matter is moved to Parliament for consideration.

SAFTU says it is not hopeful as the house is made up of members of the Government of National Unity (GNU).

“We believe that this GNU is a political conspiracy of parties rejected by the overwhelming majority of the working class, parties that do not agree on anything but a neoliberal onslaught, parties that want to privatize everything. They want to end social grants, they want to reduce the minimum wage, they want to attack the rights that workers fought for and won during decades of struggle against apartheid, entering into a conspiracy to push these kinds of reforms, ”says Mametlwe Sebei from Giwusa.

A labor expert believes workers’ objections are justified as they navigate a challenging economy.

“In the last 30 years or so of the Labor Relations Act and a range of employment legislation, there has been a balancing act between protection on the one hand and labor market efficiency and all the amendments have sought to address this. The what we’re seeing here though is that this is a low growth response is nothing but panic on the part of government and business to respond to the local situation and I think rightly so, you know the complaints are justified because it’s in much of the power that was granted to labor, by the legislature,” says labor expert Mojalefa Musi.

SAFTU will embark on a council of trade delegates on this issue in the nine provinces, calling upon the larger masses to join its course.

Labor will also be outside Parliament in a demonstration, with this particular issue in mind during the delivery of the October 2024 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement by the Finance Minister.