Wiseman Khuzwayo
The Department of Labour supported a private members’ bill submitted by the DA that would make unions legally liable when their members looted and damaged property during a strike, Ian Ollis, the party’s spokesman on labour, said yesterday.
He said that during a briefing to the portfolio committee on labour about the passage of the four controversial labour amendment bills through Nedlac, the negotiating chamber for the government, labour and business, the department revealed that it had inserted similar amendments to the DA’s position on strike violence.
However, Labour Department spokesman Page Boikanyo refused to comment, saying the bills were currently before the government’s social partners at Nedlac.
Ollis said the move by the department was a de facto endorsement of a core DA labour policy proposal, and a hugely positive development.
He added that he would carefully study the next draft amendments of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).
In October 2010, the DA submitted the private members’ bill, which proposed that unions be held accountable for their members’ misconduct during strikes.
Early this month, the SA Local Government Association voiced its support for the bill.
Cosatu has vowed that it will strongly oppose attempts in Parliament at passing the amendments.
The labour federation said the amendments were clearly aimed at bashing unions, weakening workers’ power and eroding union members’ democratic and constitutional rights to strike.
Cosatu argued that making unions liable for the financial consequences of any looting and damage of property would bankrupt the unions.
The draft labour bills are in a state of flux currently. Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant publicly called for the finalisation of the bills by October.
This deadline has passed without the labour bills being finalised.
The amendment bills seek to change the LRA, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Employment Equity Act.
The Employment Services Bill seeks to restrict the operation of labour brokers instead of banning them outright in accordance with Cosatu’s wishes.
However, Sherisa Rajah, a senior associate of employment practice at attorneys Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, recently said it appeared unlikely that the bills would be promulgated into law by May next year, as Oliphant wished.
She said: “While workers seek greater protection and job security, employers will be hoping that any additional restrictions contained in the final bills will be limited to the bare minimum.
“This is especially true in industries faced with small profit margins where further limitations could push those businesses teetering on the edge of viability into the abyss,” Rajah added.