WORKER NEWS

Saccawu breaks wage freeze

After 6 weeks on strike, retailer Edgars finally backed down on its proposal for a three year wage freeze. It agreed to pay workers R100 across the board for the next 6 months until the end of the financial year in May next year.

During the negotiations, Saccawu discovered that management had given themselves a 20% salary increase at the end of 1997. "This was one of the things that helped us argue against a wage freeze for workers," says cde Mafa Dlamini, Saccawu’s head of collective bargaining.

"We are very excited, if we had failed to win this one, then every other company would have slapped us with a wage freeze," he adds.

Some workers were suspended during the strike. "We are now through a committee screening each and every case to see whether there is a valid case of misconduct. If there is, then the case will go through the procedures – either an internal disciplinary hearing chaired by a CCMA commissioner or arbitration by a CCMA commissioner," explains Dlamini.

Retrenchments

But the battle is not over for Saccawu. Its key concern now is the threat of retrenchments. "Every company is trying to retrench now so that they don’t have to pay bonuses at the end of the year," says Dlamini.

But the squeeze is already on. More and more companies are forcing Saccawu to agree to an ‘averaging of hours’ as it is laid down in the new Basic Conditions of Employment Act. (see Shopsteward Vol 7.6 & 7 for details of Bcea)

"At Sun International, workers work up to 4 hours each day from Monday to Wednesday. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays they work up to a maximum of 12 hours each day but paid at normal time rates. They still work a 45 hour week."

"The choice companies are putting to us is ‘do you want to lose the job or save it?’ We are fighting for job security and avoiding retrenchments," adds Dlamini.

Saccawu is also fighting against the growing trend to bring in casual workers. Companies save on casuals because they don’t pay them any benefits and they can bring new ones in when business is busy. This is abusing those workers.

"We have taken a decision that we must recruit casual workers because management does whatever they want with them," says Dlamini.

Saccawu has resolved that the key focus for 1999 will be to "tackle the disease of retrenchment" and to fight for job security.

Merger comes closer

The planned merger between Cwiu and Ppwawu has been set for 24 – 26 February 1999. Already invitations to guest speakers have been sent out. Once they have merged, their combined strength will be more than 90 000 members.

"We are excited about the merger. It should have happened long ago," says Cwiu Assistant General Secretary, cde Nelson Mthombeni.

Ppwawu started talking about the merger in 1993. But it was the 1997 congress that finally put a time limit on Ppwawu’s Nobs "to implement the resolution by November 1998".

But just like company mergers, union mergers can mean an uncertain future for staff. "People will always fear the unknown," says Ppwawu general secretary, cde Bengeza. Bengeza believes that their merger process will be very different from a merger in the private sector. "In the private sector, people are just dumped."

"We have taken a principled decision that there will be no retrenchments of staff", says Mthombeni. "We might have to redeploy people but this will be after negotiating with them. It will not be done in an inhumane way, nor will it be forced upon people. If someone resigns now and after the merger, we will not replace them."

Cwiu held a national staff workshop during November "to explain to them what is happening. If we hadn’t, there would have been lots of unhappy people coming back to work after the Christmas break. We believe that people went home with an understanding," adds Mthombeni.

And adds Bengeza, "staff from both unions will emerge as winners with regard to staff conditions."

Altough there has been some hesitation on the part of staff, workers "want this thing to happen", says Bengeza.

"What has helped our merger process is that this has been an internal decision. Cosatu didn't pass a resolution telling us to merge. Both unions decided in their own structures, that to merge was the right thing to do. We want a bigger union, we are positioning ourselves for the new millenium!" he says.

Cwiu calls for Lra amendments

Cwiu held its National Bargaining Conference in October 1998 to assess its first ever national strike in all its sectors and to plan for 1999.

"Conference salutes the heriosm of workers which secured them a resounding victory against employers. It notes that in an atempt to roll back these victories, employers have embarked on a victimisation campaign trough dismissals, litigation against union activists and the leadership," said the Conference declaration.

It also adopted a programme of Action to:

• meet with senior executives of companies to demnad unconditional re-instatement of dismissed workers and withdrawal of all litigation against the Union.
• plan national actions to coincide with these meetings
• trough Cosatu campaign for the amendment of certain sections of the Lra eg. the use of scab labour during strike action.

BCEA now law!

From December 1, 1998 the Basic Conditions of Employment Act became law.

The Department of Labour has produced pamphlets like this one explaining the new Law. Contact your nearest Department of Labour office for copies. Make sure you give copies to unorganised workers and help them fight for their rights.

For more details of the law, see Shopsteward Vol 7 Nos 6&7 or get a copy of the Act itself.

Dept. Labour Offices

Five years after 53 workers at Sasol’s Middelbult Colliery were killed in an explosion, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Mines, Gudmanz, has found Sasol Management responsible for the accident because of its "total disregard for good mining practice".

Since 1993, Cwiu had been arguing that it was management’s negligence that led to their deaths. The union claimed that it was coal dust that had caused the explosion. Management claimed it was methane gas. Coal dust, if left unmixed with stone dust can cause an explosion. But unlike methane gas it is easy to make coal dust safe. Cwiu argued that management hadn’t done this and that many other things were not being managed according to established health and safety rules.

Gudmanz is now recommending that 5 key managers and other company officials be charged with contravening the Minerals Act

Now that the court has found Sasol negligent, Cwiu can now go ahead and claim extra compensation for the 45 families of those workers that died.

Labour brokers break workers’ rights

While the new Lra gives more protection to workers than ever before, employers are fast finding ways to evade their responsibilities and to circumvent workers’ rights. And in the process the flexible labour market that business says we have, is becoming more and more ‘flexible’.

This is the situation that workers at H L Hall and Sons, a large agri-business in Mpumulanga, found themselves in when they went on a legal strike.

In 1990, before strikes were protected, the company dismissed almost all its workforce. It then rehired them through 3 separate labour brokers all set up by Hall and Sons. The labour brokers are really just empty shells. They have no assets, their only income is a so-called administration fee paid by the parent company that is equal to the cost of wages that are paid out. The labour broker never makes a profit.

When Hall and Sons threatened to liquidate the labour broking subsidiaries if the workers did not end their legal strike, Saappawu approached the Labour Court for an interdict to stop the liquidation. The Union said that the liquidation was just a strategy the company was using to dismiss striking workers on a protected strike.

The Labour Court disagreed. It said that Hall and Sons could liquidate the labour broking subsidiaries even if this would result in workers’ dismissal.

The Court said that the workers could not rely on the protection of the Lra. The only thing they could do was to sue the estate of the liquidated subsidiaries. Cold comfort considering the subsidiaries had no assets and no other source of income.

Although the company did not proceed with the liquidation because the strike was settled, the labour brokers have now given notice that they intend retrenching half their employees because Hall and Sons say they wish to reduce the number of workers that they "hire" from the labour brokers.

Hall and Sons says that it has nothing to do with the retrenchment negotiations because it is not the employer of the workers – the labour brokers are the employers. The labour brokers say they have no control over their parent company and so cannot come up with alternatives to the retrenchments. The deadlock continues -- Hall and Sons continues to threaten the Union that it will liquidate its labour brokers unless the Union agrees to the retrenchments.

Labour brokers becoming popular

Labour brokers are becoming more and more popular in the eyes of employers. They are advertising their services as a way for employers to avoid having to deal with the "problems" of employing people.

One labour broker in Mpumulanga hands out brochures on street corners promising employers an end to "labour problems".

The new Lra does give some protection to workers employed by labour brokers. Section 198 says that where workers work in areas covered by:

• the Basic Conditions of Employment Act,
• the Wage Act,
• a binding arbitration award that regulates terms and conditions of employment,
• or a collective agreement concluded in a Bargaining Council, then the labour broker is also bound by these laws.

Independent contractors

But because of this meagre protection, some employers are trying a new tack. In the textile and motor industries, industries that are covered by collective agreements negotiated in Bargaining Councils, employers have started to call their workers "independent contractors". For these workers, there is even less protection from the Lra, they have effectively signed away all their rights.

"Employers go to their workers and say ‘from tomorrow you will work as independent contractors’," says cde Hosea Morapedi, Numsa’s motor sector co-ordinator. "The employer then signs a contract with each individual worker. This contract specifies how long the contract will last, the wage rates. If there were benefits like medical aid and pension through the Bargaining Council, these are no longer offered. The ‘independent contractor’ must sort these out for him/herself."

Many workers jump for these contracts. They look good because their take home pay increases – there is no tax deducted, there are no deductions for pension or for sick pay – the worker must sort all these things out.

But Morapedi is worried by these moves. "It usually means that the individual’s contract can be terminated at any time. It is an easy way for employers to get rid of workers. If the inspector from the Bargaining Council comes, he doesn’t have jurisdiction to enforce the Bargaining Council’s agreement because workers have signed their rights away. And when that person loses his/her job there will be no pension/provident fund to fall back on," says Morapedi.

Who says South African workers are not flexible?

Sub-contracted workers on the losing end

Sipho Vilakazi (not his real name) worked for a sub-contractor doing work for the Transitional Electricity Distributor (TED). Ted doesn't have its own engineering department. It sub-contracts all its engineering jobs.

Sipho and his colleagues were instructed to replace a transformer on a power line that they were told had been isolated. However, because of poor co-ordination between the sub-contractor and the TED, the power line was never isolated. As Sipho and his colleagues disconnected the transformer, there was a blinding flash and Sipho was killed.

Unfortunately Sipho is not the first worker employed by a sub-contractor to die. More and more accidents are happening in sectors where subcontractors are being used.

But Num is trying to change this in the mining industry. In terms of the new Mines Health and Safety Act, there must be a review every 2 years of progress with regard to implementing the Act. Num took part in a health and safety summit at the end of 1998 with other mining unions, employers and government. Health and safety of workers employed by sub-contractors was one of the key agenda items.

"In our experience, subcontracted labour is ultra cheap labour. Often these workers work in very dangerous areas. We want to make sure that when mine-owners draw up a contract with sub-contractors, that the contract forces the subcontractors to keep records of those workers and that there is medical surveillance of those workers," says Num researcher, cde Devan Pillay.

For like many other industries, working in the mining industry can mean exposure to harmful fumes, dust, chemicals. Often this exposure only starts to harm the worker when s/he has left the industry. This makes it very difficult to prove the link between illness and the work that a worker did. That is why medical surveillance is so important.

At the moment the Mines Health and Safety Act says that mine-owners re responsible for all employees. "However, often mine-owners dodge . their responsibilities saying that workers of sub-contractors are employees of the sub-contractors, not . 'the mines' employees'," adds Pillay. "We have to look at how we implement the Act so that it covers all mineworkers."

Meanwhile sub-contracting is spreading like wild-fire to the timber and construction industries.

"There is hardly a timber company that harvests its own wood,".says Nelspruit lawyer, Richard Spoor who acts for many Cosatu unions. "Most of them employ casual workers on a large scale."

"In the forestry industry, the rates of disabling injuries have increased substantially since the big forestry companies like Sappi and Mondi have replaced their well-trained workers with sub-contractors. Many of them are fly-by-nights. They use only temporary labour. They take little effort to ensure that workers are properly trained and equipped to do the job safely."

"Workers are covered by Workmen's Compensation but often the Commissioner deals just with the employer. If the employer doesn't follow up the case, then nothing happens. Workers won't be compensated."

Unions need to step up organisation to fight for the health and safety rights of all workers, including those working for sub-contractors.

Water TNCs’ profits gush, communities suffer

In the last Shopsteward, Samwu outlined its attempts to push government into using alternative options to the privatisation of water services. In this article, Samwu’s Anna Weekes points out difficulties that communities in other parts of the world have had with the very same Transnational Corporations that are currently bidding for water provision in this country (some of these TNCs are already providing water in this country.) She also points out the hidden costs of the privatisation process to government and how it is delaying the provision of water to those that need it.

As Shopsteward went to print, Samwu was to go into the final round of setting up a framework agreement with government around local government restructuring. During the Framework talks, Samwu has stuck to its position that workers and their communities will suffer if essential services are privatised. More and more case studies of privatisation of essential services in other parts of the world are showing us this.

One of the strongest arguments against privatising water to a TNC right now is the unstable world economy. When the value of the local currency in the Philippines dropped dramatically against the British pound, British TNC Biwater that was bidding for water provision in Baguio, Philippines, announced that it would have to raise the price that it was going to charge for water so that it could get a ‘fair return’ on its investment. The local council of Baguio cancelled the contract.

Biwater has admitted that any contractor like itself must secure a contract with government that protects "against inflation, devaluation and foreign exchange fluctuation."

Communities in Argentina thought they had water transnational - Lyonnaise des Eaux – tied to a ‘watertight contract’.

In 1993, Aguas Argentinas, a consortium which Lyonnaise des Eaux is part of, won the water and sanitation contract in Buenos Aires.

At the time, they signed a contract with the local authority. This spelt out what extensions must be made to the water system, so that all residents would eventually have access to water. It also included a structure for tariffs that the company could charge residents, the amount the tariffs would increase over the years, when reviews of this tariff structure would be made, and so on. In short, it seemed like a "watertight" contract.

Towards the end of last year, however, the Buenos Aires municipality agreed that Lyonnaise des Eaux could increase water prices to residents. They were forced to do this because, in extending the water, Aguas Argentinas had set a high connection fee that people could not afford to pay. The municipality said that the company had to connect communities, even if people couldn't pay.

The result? Aguas Argentinas started making financial losses and told the municipality they would not be able to continue unless they got more money.

As it is a very costly business to break a contract and start the tender process all over again, the municipality gave in. They agreed that Aguas Argentinas could increase the price of water. This despite the fact that the company had saved money by not investing as much money in building up the water infrastructure as they had said they would.

This case begs the question - Can a contract ever be ‘water-tight’? In this case, the company simply re-negotiated the terms of the contract with the government. At no stage were workers or the community consulted!

Even in its home country, British TNC, Biwater -- the company bidding to supply Nelspruit’s water – has been labelled as one of the four worst water companies in the UK in terms of customer service.

But the Public Services International, the trade union representing public sector unions worldwide, has dug deeper into Biwater’s business.

It accuses Biwater of "deliberately seeking non-competitive, government-guaranteed profits from water privatisation" (across the world) in an attempt to stem its worsening performance in terms of sales and operating profits.

It has also found that where Biwater tries to get contracts there are often "accusations of improper conduct over tenders, or outright corruption involving Biwater or its local partners, or the authorities with whom it is negotiating."

TNCs already operating in South Africa

Lyonnaise des Eaux is already operating in the Eastern Cape, and has bid for every privatisation contract put out to tender so far in South Africa. Residents of Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape phoned the Samwu offices about two moths ago to complain that their water was undrinkable because dead cats, dogs and bottles of industrial cleaner were floating in the reservoir.

Company executives simply said that the allegations were lies, although there were many eyewitnesses, including Samwu shopstewards, and the reservoir was unfenced, uncovered and generally badly maintained.

The French company that has been selected as the preferred bidder to privatise the water of Dolphin Coast in KwaZulu-Natal, has an equally problematic history. In fact, the chairperson of SAUR-Bouygues has spent a few nights in jail and is currently under investigation for corruption!

The Department of Constitutional Development has set up the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit with R20m in grant money to help municipalities develop partnership plans and draw up tender requirements.

Nelspruit battle hots up

Meanwhile the battle over the provision of water to Nelspruit residents is not yet over. Already the Nelspruit tender process has cost R14 million. With the same money two thousand RDP standpi-es could have been installed (taps every 500 metres). Just recently government provided 300 taps in 13 villages in rural Northern Province for just R3 million.

Calls by Samwu for government not to agree to the contract, have been strengthened by PSI who has "strongly urged government to suspend the threatened privatisation of water services in Nelspruit." It has also called on trade unions and democratic governments world-wide "to raise their voices for an open and critical debate on privatisation."

Popcru gets tough on crime

Popcru is to launch a countrywide Anti-Crime Campaign from December 16, 1998 to January 10, 1999. The campaign will be officially launched by Union President Zizamele Cebekhulu, General Secretary Abbey Witbooi and Treasurer General Themba Matsane in Durban. Safety and Security Minister, Sydney Mufamadi and National Police Commissioner George Fivaz will also be guests at the official launch.

The Anti-Crime Campaign is in line with Cosatu’s offer of free services to our people and with Commissioner Fivaz's Crime Prevention Objectives for 1998/99.

We will make it a point that tourists, holiday makers and our communities in general will be safe this festive season. We will also try our level best to prevent road accidents.

We have approached the Tripartite Alliance, Community Policing Forums so that this campaign will involve all concerned citizens of our land as crime is everyone's problem. We want to make South Africa a crime free country.

As the official launch will be in Durban in other provinces, all our off duty members, alliance Comrades and other role players will observe this period of 16 December to 10 January by making foot patrols, road blocks with the assistance of on duty Police Officers.

DEBATE

Fawu had two objections to the Tobacco Product Amendment Bill. Firstly it felt that the process followed to deal with the Bill was not democratic. Secondly it believes that the Bill is not appropriate for a developing country. The potential negative economic effects of job losses and loss of foreign exchange outweigh the benefits to the country of reduced smoking.

Fawu believes that the process in dealing with this law was not democratic:

• Most laws go to Parliament and then to the NCOP. Not so with this Bill. It went to the National Assembly, was quickly withdrawn and then went straight to Cabinet and then on to the NCOP.
• Some stakeholders cry foul for not having been consulted. Certainly Fawu was not consulted on the Bill.
• Little time was set aside for public submissions and stakeholder inputs in the provinces. In fact, to rub salt into the wound, some provinces claimed to have had a mandate during the deliberations of the NCOP’s Social Service Committee when in fact they were still to get a mandate after public hearings scheduled days later. Other provinces did not conduct hearings at all.

Fawu believes that the effects of the Bill will be to reduce smoking. This will reduce production and/or imports of tobacco. Fawu tried to meet with government to debate the following facts:

• The domestic tobacco industry employs 28 000 workers in the farming side and over 4 000 in manufacturing. Certainly a portion of the above will lose jobs in the tobacco industry and some jobs will be lost in related or associated industries.
• South Africa exports around 33% of tobacco raw material and foreign exchange may go down.
• The country imports just over 40% of high quality tobacco leaf from SADC countries. Indeed, Malawi and Zimbabwe respectively earn 70% and 30% of their foreign exchange from tobacco exports. In Malawi alone there are over 500 000 people directly employed -- although under slave conditions -- in the tobacco industry.
• There are several RDP projects in the Northern Province, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape based on tobacco farming. These projects are likely to fall apart.
• SADC is the world’s third largest exporter of tobacco. The whole region therefore stands to be negatively affected.

South Africa as a developing country located in a developing region (though comparatively more economically stable than its neighbours), needs to design and adopt legislation and policies that will develop the region. In this regard the Human Development Report of the UN recognises that banning or severely restricting tobacco advertisements may cause devastating economic consequences in countries with high unemployment.

The above facts characterise our fears and concerns. Unfortunately no one has meaningfully debated these issues. The Medical Research Council came up with statistics that only cover a period up to the 1980s. Their research is not necessarily true for today or the future. Our concern is that the ministry chose to, among others, use the MRC statistics when formulating the Bill.

Intervention by Mbeki

Because the Bill had reached an irreversible stage of the legislative process, Fawu met with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, the director general of the health department, Ministers of Agriculture and Sport.

It was agreed that an implementation strategy needed to be formulated to ensure that the application of the Act avoided (or minimised and managed) negative economic consequences like job losses and loss of foreign exchange.

A follow up meeting will be held soon to finalise the implementation strategy. Fawu is suggesting that there should be a cluster study. This will look at the economic role of tobacco -- from farming, manufacturing, retail, exports and imports. It will also look at how to phase out tobacco and phase in an alternative crop.

Any application of the Bill must be gradual and be mindful of jobs and their economic consequences. These provisions include exemptions/exceptions, schedules and regulations.

In conclusion, FAWU -- initially disappointed at the flawed process followed in debating this Bill - is now upbeat about the professional and political intervention of the Deputy President in dealing with the issue and the outcome of this intervention.