South Africa's Workers' Day: Uniting against unemployment and injustice

SOUTH Africans commemorated Workers' Day with less hope for a better future as 41.9% of them remained trapped in unemployment statistics, with jobless young people sitting at 59%, according to the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu). 

Both Cosatu and Saftu used the May Day commemoration gatherings on Thursday to express concern about the high unemployment rate and wages that remained below the cost of living.  

Saftu rang an alarm that, under the country’s neoliberal capitalism system, South Africans were “living the nightmare”. 

“63% of our people are trapped below the poverty line, 23.7% starving below the food poverty line and black women face the highest rate of all, over 40%,” read the statement. 

The federation said May Day was a day of battle and people should commit themselves to the unfinished struggle “against the twin evils of capitalist exploitation and racial oppression that continue to choke our people”.

Its main concern was the Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissal, which, if passed, would make it easy for small businesses to expel workers without following normal labour practice processes, such as “engage in time-consuming investigations or pre-dismissal processes”.

The Department of Employment and Labour published the draft on January 22 for public hearings, which were closed on March 24. 

This would make it easy for such employers to get rid of poor-performing workers, suspected of misconduct, participating in unprotected strikes, and not adhering to operational requirements. 

“On the fairness of a dismissal, the Draft Code proposes that where a dismissal is not automatically unfair, the employer needs only to show that the dismissal was for a fair reason and in compliance with a fair procedure. 

“This is in contrast to the current Code, which states that the employer must show that the reason is related to conduct, or capacity, or an operational requirement,” read the draft.

Saftu described the draft, which would amend the Labour Relations Act, as a direct assault on “the hard-won rights of workers”.

“We call on all workers, unions, and progressive formations to unite in resistance to the new Draft Code, which removes the obligation for small employers to conduct formal disciplinary hearings.

“This opens the door to arbitrary dismissals without investigations, due process, or fairness. Disciplinary processes are replaced with informal ‘dialogues’ or written responses, stripping workers of representation, transparency, and the right to a fair hearing. This undermines basic principles of procedural fairness,” the union said.

Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the amendment of the Labour Relations Act was the worst attack on the workers and was reversing their achievements. 

“We are saying no to giving employers the right to dismiss workers without following procedures, we are saying no to employers telling workers that they must write reasons why they should not be dismissed, and the employer decides to dismiss everything they say in writing and dismiss them without a hearing,” he told the media in Johannesburg on Thursday. 

Cosatu’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Edwin Mkhize said workers in the public and private sectors were facing challenges from austerity measures and disrespect for collective bargaining.

Workers in the private sector, in particular the most vulnerable sectors, continue to face serious challenges of exploitation, retrenchments, and precarious conditions due to economic distress and declining share of labour. 

“On the other side, company bosses are not willing to compromise on their profit margins. 

“Unemployment remains very high, affecting mostly poor communities, women and youth in the main,” said Mkhize. 

He said there was a need to build “a very strong” labour movement to protect workers. 

“The platform of the May Day Rally should also be used to share challenges faced by the working class, struggles, campaigns, and victories scored,” he said.

Addressing the Workers' Day rally in Middleburg, Mpumalanga, Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi said May Day was the declaration of the continuation of workers’ struggle.

She said workers were celebrating the right to assembly, joining unions, maternity and paternity protection, and R500 billion for Covid-19 lockdown compensation. 

She said the rights of domestic workers to a minimum wage were a sign that the country was moving towards a living wage. 

“But we must not be naive, as we know that the victories of yesterday are under attack today.  Unemployment remains a national crisis in South Africa, while labour brokering and casualisation have not been defeated,” she said.

Losi said workers were still underpaid, which made them struggle to afford school fees and other household-related costs, and they were the victims of the government's austerity measures. 

“Workers cannot afford decent houses, and we must choose whether to take your child to school by transport, or they walk, or you buy bread and mielie meal,” she said. 

Labour law expert Michael Bagraim said workers had more reasons to celebrate their day than in the apartheid era. 

“I keep telling people that Workers' Day was very helpful in endorsing Cosatu in the early days when Cosatu brought the Nationalist government to its knees through industrial action.

“Therefore, we need to celebrate Workers' Day every year because the trade unions were real ones who brought change through democracy, and we must not forget that. 

“We also need to celebrate the Constitution, which is a valuable tool for workers’ rights,” he said. 

Bagraim said workers should use the commemorations to demand that unions focus on fighting for their rights instead of politics. 

He said the draft was a good tool to encourage the companies to employ more people without fear that they might not be able to dismiss those whom they are not happy to keep. 

“The business community is saying we stopped employing because it is difficult to get rid of people, and now, as a small business, you can and you don’t have to go through a complicated disciplinary hearing. 

“I think it is good and we must give it a chance to see if the employment picks up,” said Bagraim. 

bongani.hans@inl.co.za