2005-12-06,+Reckless+labour+reform,+Mdladlana+interview,+S+Times

= **‘Reckless labour reform’ warning** =


 * Membathisi Mdladlana says managers, not workers, often to blame for business inefficiency, writes Dingilizwe Ntuli**


 * Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 04 December 2005**

LABOUR Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has warned against “reckless labour market reforms”, and against people seeking popularity by attacking labour laws.

Mdladlana’s remarks, during a meeting of his department at the beginning of a mid-term review on Thursday, came after the Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in an interview with Business Times last week that greater flexibility in the labour market must be part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Agisa). Agisa aims to boost economic growth in South Africa to more than 6% by clearing obstacles to expansion.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is set to present a detailed proposal to the Cabinet in January for an independent labour market review to determine the scale of unemployment and to assess unintended consequences of labour legislation.

Mdladlana said he was tired of people generalising about labour legislation, and not specifying what they thought was wrong with it.

“There are many people who seek popularity by attacking the labour laws. It’s happening everywhere; but these people, though, can’t point out exactly what is wrong with the law.

“They need to give examples of the wrongness of our laws and not blame them for the procedures adopted through narrow interpretations,” said Mdladlana.

Among others, Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni has recently criticised labour legislation, saying it has had the unintended consequence of hampering investment.

Business also contends that labour laws discourage investment by making it difficult for firms to hire and fire people, thereby slowing growth and job creation.

But Mdladlana said his job was to defend workers, and disputed claims that increased flexibility would automatically lead to increased labour market efficiency.

“Non-compliance with labour regulations, for example, might create short-term employment for some, but it is unlikely that it is generating labour market efficiency.

“Flexibility should not be accepted as a goal,” said Mdladlana.

At times, efficiency was a problem of management, he contended.

Calls for greater flexibility created the impression that management was performing optimally and that labour rights and workers were entirely to blame for inefficiency, he explained.

Flexibility should not be a solution to poor management, and workers should not lose rights in order to compensate for managerial incapacity.

In any event, he said, the Labour Relations Act, as amended in 2002, eases procedures on dismissals in a manner that should favour small businesses.

Section 188A provides for an agreement for pre-dismissal arbitration where an employer, with the consent of an employee, may request an accredited agency to conduct arbitration into allegations concerning conduct of an employee.

Mdladlana said the Council for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and bargaining councils had clung to rigorous and inflexible interpretations of what is a fair dismissal.

This had led to proceduralist processes and narrow interpretations about dismissal that were not envisaged by the law.

Responding to suggestions that current labour laws were worsening the position of people in the “second economy”, Mdladlana said even if there were grounds for this argument, it seemed implausible that the solution would lie in “deregulating” labour and leaving it to market forces to improve the lives of people by creating jobs.

“The problems of the second economy are a mirror of the problems of growth and development that our country faces. Colonialism and apartheid contributed to the evolution of our economy as an enclave economic structure where the growth process was by nature exclusionary and marginalising for large sections of our population.”

He conceded that some changes in labour laws might be required, but said such changes should only be made after thorough research and the interests of workers should remain fully protected.

Trade unions are opposed to any reform in the labour laws saying any loosening of government control over business will see workers thrown out of jobs.

From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article-business.aspx?ID=ST6A155721