Cosatu should take real action and support DA’s job-creation plan

Following Cosatu’s march in support of decent work and job creation today, the DA calls on Cosatu to make good on their “commitment” to championing job creation and decent work by supporting the DA's 5-Point Jobs Plan for Economic Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity. 

Cosatu cannot march for one thing but then vote for another. They must now put their money where their mouth is and fully and publically support the DA’s labour reform measures which will foster job creation and improve the lives of South Africans. Anything less will mean that Cosatu has no objection to the current situation. 

Labour policy must balance the protection of workers’ rights with the need to build greater flexibility into our labour market to make it easier for businesses to create jobs. If this balance is not achieved, labour policy is protecting the employed at the expense of the unemployed. What is required is a stable labour environment that supports increased productivity and boosts investor confidence. That is what the DA’s plan entails.

South Africa’s unemployment crisis – currently standing at 35% - is due largely to our country’s rigid and unworkable labour market. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2015/16, in the category of “Cooperation in labour-employer relations,” South Africa has been stone last for three years running – ranked 144 out of 144 countries assessed. We find ourselves trailing the likes of Venezuela, Mauritania, Chad, Guinea and Myanmar in this regard. 

In addition to this, the ANC has sought to highly regulate temporary employment services through amendments to section 198 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA), which Cosatu has not only supported, but called for an outright ban on labour brokers. In essence, Cosatu’s message to those who cannot find work is simple - we want to make it more difficult for you to find work. Cosatu ought to abandon this stance and support the repealing of the current amendments, allowing millions of young South Africans a way in to the labour market.

In 2014, strikes cost the South African economy R6 billion in wages, and ultimately cost many jobs. By creating a flexible job-creating labour market, strikes will naturally decrease, and the DA’s policy includes democratising and better regulation of strike balloting procedures such as secret ballots which entitles affected workers and unions to strike protection. This allows workers the choice to strike or not, and takes the power out of union bosses hands. 

The fact that Cosatu instructs their members to vote for the ANC in general elections is the height of insincerity. In a statement released on May 5 last year, just two days before the general election, Cosatu made a "final appeal to all its 2.2-million members, all workers and working-class community members to vote in their millions … for our longstanding ally, the ANC".

If Cosatu is truly serious about job creation and improving the lives of South Africans, they should abandon the tried, tested and failed economic policies of the ANC and pledge their full support to the DA’s policy plan. 

Every South African must be afforded the opportunity to find a job, which brings with it freedom, dignity, independence, and an opportunity to better one’s life. Labour legislation and policy ought to reflect this.

Issued by Ian Ollis, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, 7 October 2015