Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
AFTER being roasted in Parliament for not giving a breakdown on the jobs they saved in the last financial year, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has revealed that it has saved more than 100 000 jobs in the past five years.
CCMA senior officials were under fire in Parliament two weeks ago where members of the portfolio committee on labour wanted a firm answer on the jobs saved, but yesterday the CCMA said that it would still brief the portfolio committee on the matter.
The tongue-lashing of the CCMA by MPs came after the committee said it was not happy that it was given percentage figures and not the actual number of jobs saved by the commission.
The CCMA had said to the committee 20 percent of the jobs were saved. But CCMA said this was a target for the new financial year.
The CCMA said in the period from 2010 to 2015 it had saved a total of 103 343 actual jobs.
“For the last financial year (1 April 2013-March 2014) the CCMA actually saved 33 694 jobs out of 74 983 employees likely to be retrenched,” said the CCMA.
The CCMA has indicated the number of jobs saved has continued to increase in the past five years.
In 2010/11 year, the commission saved a total of 9 207 jobs while in 2011/12 this figure rose by more than twofold, to 19 487.
In the 2012/13 financial year the number of jobs saved rose to 29 065 and in 2013/14 it shot up to 33 694.
Between the beginning of the 2014/15 financial year in April last year until February 28 this year the number of jobs saved were standing at 11 890.
The picture would become clearer after the end of the 2014/15 financial year, which was yesterday.
It said it wanted to increase the number of jobs to be saved in the new financial year, noting that out of the jobs to be lost this year the commission wanted to save 20 percent of those jobs.
“This performance target forms part of the CCMA’s Strategic Objective: Enhancing Labour Market to advance stability and growth and is part of the KPA (Key Performance Area) advance employment security,” said the commission.
In its annual performance plan and strategic plan tabled in the portfolio committee on labour, the commission said that its job saving impacted on the economy.
“The development policy research unit research shows that the CCMA’s job-saving efforts generates a financial impact to the national economy eight to 14 times our national expenditure,” the document said.