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The Citizen
6 days ago
- The Citizen
Children must be in school, not at work
Despite the decline, child labour persisted. Child labour has sharply declined in post-apartheid South Africa, due to the department of employment and labour's enforcement of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, according to experts. This became apparent with World Day Against Child Labour last week. First declared by the International Labour Organisation in 2002, World Day Against Child Labour is intended to foster the worldwide movement against child labour. According to United Nations agency Unicef, child labour still affects nearly 138 million children worldwide. Unicef maintains children globally are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work. Cosatu national spokesperson Matthew Parks said while the Act prohibited the employment of minors, South Africa has seen 'many employers ignore it'. Where some of the abuses occur Parks said significant abuses occurred in the agricultural, transport and retail sectors. 'Cosatu and its affiliates have focused on ensuring employers comply with the labour laws – exposing those who break the law and reporting offenders to the department of employment and labour,' he said. 'We are encouraged by the department's recent recruitment of 10 000 labour inspectors and plans for a further 10 000 next year. These will be a powerful boost to enforcing labour laws. 'Children must be in school, not at work,' said Parks. ALSO READ: Witness 'too scared to testify' in Chinese human trafficking and child labour case Decline Prof Lucien van der Walt, director of the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit at Rhodes University, said child labour has 'to a large extent, sharply declined in post-apartheid South Africa'. 'It is illegal,' said Van der Walt. He said there were third party audits on child labour, conducted by the Sustainability Initiative of South Africa and the Wine and Agricultural Ethical Trade Association. 'A key effect in sectors like agriculture, which used to make fairly extensive use of child labour, no longer do so,' he said. 'A 2025 study by Derek Yu, Simba Murozvi and Clinton Herwel found that child labour under the age of 15 has decreased to less than 1% in commercial agriculture.' Despite the decline, child labour persisted. 'The ability and willingness of the state to carry out inspections is limited, with inspectors sometimes relying on employers' accounts,' said Van der Walt. 'Regulations are in practice, mainly enforced against larger businesses and employers, including farms. 'Statistics tend to only capture regulated activities and work for money. 'Millions are not in reality, covered by regulations – either because of how regulations are framed or because regulations are just not enforced.' Informal sector He said patterns varied by region, 'but there is evidence of ongoing child labour in unregulated or so-called informal parts of the economy'. This included family businesses – based at home or on the street, including small-scale family farms, casual, domestic and taxi labour. 'Not all of this is paid in wages – often it is driven by the family's situation,' he said. 'While larger, regulated employers, have little reason these days to draw on child labour, there is a large pool of unemployed adults, as well as cheap immigrant labour. Such labour is often important in the informal economy.' The informal economy was 'often praised by government and the media, as an engine of growth and jobs'. 'But this romantic picture, hides the reality of battles to survive: low incomes, insecure work, lack of protections, minimum wages, social insurance, abuses like stolen wages, union-bashing and some of the worst working and employment conditions in the country.' NOW READ: New employment code aims to address SA unemployment crisis
The Citizen
02-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Workers' rights: Union members tend to become spectators while leaders take decisions
Employment equity – currently a bone of contention between the right and left of SA's political spectrum – 'has had a major effect'. Cosatu members on their way to Johannesburg Stck Exchange in Sandton in Johannesburg, 7 October 2024, to hand memorandum as part of its National Day of Action against the economic crisis' in the country. COSATU allies, the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) and the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) participated in the strike. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/ The Citizen As thousands of workers yesterday marked May Day, a labour expert says the Labour Relations Act (LRA) has affected working conditions. This has been strengthened by labour federations Cosatu and Saftu being united in opposition to the value-added tax (VAT) hike and amendments to labour laws. Prof Lucien van der Walt, of Rhodes University's economics and governance department, lauded the LRA as the first legislation in the country's history to provide all workers 'access to a formal industrial relations machinery.' ALSO READ: Celebrating Workers' Day with no work? Unemployment forum boycotts the day This, said Van der Walt, included protected strikes and other measures from which unions benefited. 'Until the late 1970s, such legislation excluded black African workers, who were confined to a separate, labour-repressive system,' he said. 'The changes in the 1980s facilitated massive union growth, with Cosatu membership growing from 450 000 in 1985 to well over two million in the 2000s.' 'Downsize' However, Van der Walt said the downside of the LRA was that 'it – like its predecessor, the Industrial Conciliation Act – is based around time-consuming and bureaucratic processes'. 'For workers to have a protected strike, other avenues provided to resolve the issues must be exhausted,' he said. ALSO READ: Govt increases minimum wage – here's how much domestic workers should earn from 1 March 'Unions get entangled in lengthy and complicated procedures. This affects how unions work, with members left out. 'Rather than driving and controlling, members tend to become spectators, with organisers and leaders focusing on the legal system, rather than on worker mobilisation and education. 'Organisers and leaders also get more power through their know-how and often make decisions without direction from members. ALSO READ: Numsa demands wage increase, night shift allowance for motor industry workers 'So, over time, the LRA has fostered a much more top-down, passive approach to trade unionism,' he added. Employment equity Employment equity (EE) – currently a bone of contention between the right and left of SA's political spectrum – 'has had a major effect'. 'The SA workforce was historically highly shaped by race and sex. Essentially, white workers dominated many skilled and better-paying jobs, including government,' said Van der Walt. 'Women of all races were locked out of many occupations. 'EE measures have shifted this situation, most notably in government, which is by far the biggest single employer. ALSO READ: Municipal workers place duty above pay as overtime cap hurts residents 'There have also been changes in the private sector. There has been enormous pressure to have what has been deemed a more representative workforce. 'But EE has had little effect on people living with disabilities.' Van der Walt said EE limitations included: Measures expressed in law and policy, not intended to act as a simple quota system reserving jobs by race or sex; and Fostering racial tensions among workers through conflicts over jobs and promotions. 'The reality that EE is simply unable to address broader problems of widespread low-wage work, job insecurity and unemployment,' he said. 'Conflicts over EE would be less serious if there were more jobs and better jobs. There would be less competition for a small number of skilled, well-paid jobs and less stress for people who lost jobs. 'But EE, by its nature, is focused on the redistribution of fairly small numbers of well-paid and skilled jobs.' 'Anti-worker labour laws' In his May Day message, Saftu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said workers across the labour movement were 'united in opposition to the VAT increase and anti-worker labour laws'. 'Comrades, we meet at a moment of profound danger, with the working class under siege. Brutal austerity is ripping apart our communities. Corporate profiteering is driving hunger and homelessness,' said Vavi. 'The bosses and their government are not stopping at VAT. They are unleashing a direct assault on worker rights through vicious labour law amendments and a draft code of good practice on dismissal. 'These are not technical changes, but are rather a blatant declaration of war on the working class. Saftu calls for mass resistance against these betrayals,' he added. Cosatu said it remained opposed to proposed amendments to labour law, which followed extensive engagements between labour and business at the National Economic Development and Labour Council, with similar public hearings held in parliament. According to Cosatu national spokesperson, Matthew Parks, changes to the law included 'adapting employment equity targets to take into account regional demographic diversity and to adopt more focused targets for sectors falling woefully behind employment equity'. NOW READ: Massive Transnet strike could bring logistics sector to its knees – brians@
