About time someone really shook up the LRA roost

[wynn]

you don't care how your chips feel about it.

When you say 'Chips' don't you really mean "Chops"?

[Dave A]

More fireworks well and truly on the way - this time relating to the extension of collective agreements to non-parties.

Metals sector faces further ructions.

[Dave A]

As NUMSA rejects the 10% offer from employers and accuses them of "reckless shenanigans and unreasonable demands", we have Statistician-General Pali Lohohla with this to say:

Lehohla on Monday tabled figures highlighting the sluggish recovery of South Africa's mining and manufacturing sectors in the wake of the 2008/09 recession.

The figures were a repeat of those issued in Stats SA's last monthly release, tabled last week.

They highlight the impact strikes and industrial unrest have had on the country's mining and manufacturing sectors.

Among other things, they show that between June 2012 and March this year a total of 48 000 jobs were lost in the mining sector, a decrease of 9%.

Further between September 2006 and March this year, the number of employees in the manufacturing sector decreased by 14%, a total of 188 000 employees.

Asked why he was repeating the data, Lehohla said the strikes and industrial unrest experienced around the country were cause for concern.

"Releasing these numbers in the context of a restive industrial environment helps to energise the discussion that society needs to have.

"Government must engage these numbers and look at them, analyse them and feed them into the Nedlac [National Economic, Development and Labour Council], so that there is more peaceful industrial relations."

I do believe it is long overdue that we call a spade a spade.

There is something very wrong with our Labour Relations Act. It isn't working and it's causing ever increasing economic mayhem. And every day this problem isn't tackled, the hole we're digging for ourselves is going to be deeper and harder to get out of.

The time to act is NOW!

[Dave A]

Driving home this evening I heard a report that Mildred Olifant has now met the parties to try to settle the strike. The report mentioned that Mildred believes there needs to be new mechanisms put in place to prevent these damaging strikes.

That sounded like progress, so I went hunting for some online reports of the statement(s).

No luck unfortunately. But I did come across a report that dampens my hopes somewhat that government is finally waking up and seeing the problem for what it is. How the heck can we expect a sound solution when this is part of the paradigm:

Oliphant said the government was intent on exploring the introduction of a minimum wage because salary disparities remained vast, despite the equal pay for equal work provision in the country's labour equity legislation.

She cited differences in pay for rock drillers in the mining sector, saying those in platinum, gold and coal mines were not earning equally well, despite essentially doing the same job.

"When you look at the way they work, all of them are doing the same job. The question will have to be: Why do you have people who are doing the same job not being paid equally?"
from Government mulling minimum wage model on Moneyweb

Gee Mildred. Great question!
While you're about it, please find out why gold, platinum and coal don't get the same price per ounce on the open market?
You might also want to research where the money to pay wages in the private sector actually comes from.
Here's a clue - it isn't from taxes.