Johannesburg - The DA will push for labour reforms in Parliament this week to address underlying causes of mining unrest, the party said on Monday.
The labour portfolio committee would meet to continue its final deliberations on the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, Democratic Alliance MP Sej Motau said.
Parliament should use the opportunity to take the lead in finding solutions to the underlying causes of the country's mining sector crisis.
Deliberations in Parliament would take place amid growing tensions between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).
Labour relations in the mining sector have taken centre stage since the killing of 44 people near Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana, North West, last year.
Tensions between the NUM and Amcu have intensified in the platinum sector, leading to violence and strikes.
“It is increasingly becoming clear that government's latest interventions in the platinum belt, led by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, is failing to effectively deal with the symptoms of the unrest,” said Motau.
President Jacob Zuma tasked Motlanthe with leading interactions with the unions and mining companies.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant, and Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu would help him.
“It is high time that Parliament stood up to Cosatu (Congress of SA Trade Unions) and put what is in the best interests of stability in the mining sector and job creation ahead of internal tri-partite alliance politics,” Motau said.
The DA would push for:
- amendments to sections 64 and 67, which would provide for the reintroduction of the requirement of balloting before a strike;
- repeal of section 18 which allowed majority unions and employers to agree on thresholds of representation for unions to gain organisational rights in a specific workplace or sector;
- repeal of section 26 which allowed for closed-shop agreements and proposed a model of proportional representation in labour bargaining; and
- amendments to section 32 which allowed for extending bargaining council agreements to parties not part of the bargaining process.
In an effort to protect the employees of labour brokers, the bill proposed that arbitration awards dealing with organisational rights be binding, not only on the employer of the affected employees, but also on the clients of labour brokers who were bound by such awards.
Cosatu has called for a total ban on labour brokers. - Sapa