BUSINESS MAVERICK: New legislation requiring secret strike ballots is the latest in South Africa’s intra-union battles

  • 📰 dailymaverick
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 56 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 26%
  • Publisher: 84%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

BUSINESS MAVERICK: New legislation requiring secret strike ballots is the latest in South Africa’s intra-union battles By Tim Cohen tim_cohen

One of Nedlac’s great achievements in the recent past was the agreement on a new and higher minimum wage. But the agreement came with a caveat insisted on by business: that to have a legally protected strike, workers would have to first have a secret ballot.Reconstructing motivations and history a little freely, it seems the logic behind the move worked something like this: for business, it was clear that they were going to lose the issue of a higher minimum wage in Nedlac.

The sheer all-round destructiveness that strikes involve is now getting some belated recognition from the government, which acceded to business’ demand. Arguably, because Cosatu is now predominantly a state-sector union, it was less motivated to reject the idea of secret balloting because it is anyway protected by its ally, the ANC, being in control of the state. Cosatu’s strength now lies primarily in its link to the ANC rather than on the shop floor, cynics would say, making it more difficult for the union to differ with government on key policy issues.

Furthermore, the legislation has been poorly drafted, he said, because although it requires a plurality of votes to approve a strike, it does not specify what proportion of the workforce needs to vote. There is some academic disagreement about whether SA is actually a strike-prone country, but it’s probably fair to say it is. The easy calculation just counts the number of strikes, and those have been increasing every year, so that 2017 – the latest date official data has been released – had 121 strikes, the largest number for a decade.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

All Blacks aiming to punish any South Africa gambles - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.New Zealand will be looking to capitalise on any unnecessary risks South Africa choose to take in their World Cup opener on Saturday according to boss Steve Hansen, who is hoping to lead the All Blacks to a third consecutive title in Japan.
Source: SABC News Online - 🏆 32. / 51 Read more »

UKZN supports multilingualism - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.Language Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Langa Khumalo says African languages must be afforded the same opportunities in the fields of science and technology, teaching, learning, research and innovation, as other languages. What's that? So when you did your law degree in isizulu and want to live in Canada. Your skills will not be transferable. Mulitilingualism is good for staying home but you are not a global player. Reinventing the working education system is detrimental to progress. Wake up.
Source: SABC News Online - 🏆 32. / 51 Read more »