Any+old+job+not+always+good,+Terry+Bell,+BRep

Inside Labour
=Any old job isn't always a good one=


 * Business Report, Johannesburg, January 27, 2006**


 * By Terry Bell**

A rose is a rose is a rose. And, as Shakespeare noted, "by any other name [it] would smell as sweet". The same cannot be said for jobs. Jobs bearing the same description and involving the same labour input and productive output can differ radically from one month or week to the next.

As for the worker doing it, a job can rapidly change from being secure, quite rewarding and even satisfying, to an insecure, underpaid and grossly exploitative burden.

This is why the trade union movement continues to talk of "real" or "quality" jobs as opposed to jobs per se. It is also why the labour movement was less than enthusiastic about the latest labour force survey published this week.

The survey noted that while more jobs were created in the year to September, more of the workforce was classified as unemployed. This apparent contradiction is explained by Cosatu, whose spokesperson, Patrick Craven, says: "More workers classified as 'discouraged' were found to be actively looking for work."

"Discouraged workers" - more than 3.3 million men and women - are those members of the army of the unemployed who, for one reason or other, did not "actively seek work" for four weeks before the survey. More than half of these people had not sought work for the simple reason that none was available in the areas in which they live.

Unsurprisingly, nearly 10 percent of the discouraged were found to have given up all hope of ever finding a job.

Tragically, 15.2 percent of workers classified as discouraged - some 495 000 people - did not have enough money for the transport necessary for them to seek the work they often so desperately wanted.

"But the chances are that the jobs these people may find will not be quality jobs; they will be not only unsustainable and underpaid, they will also often be hazardous," says National Council of Trade Unions general secretary Mahlomola Skhosana.

The unions also point out that because of the wide definition of what constitutes employment, the official unemployment figure of 26.7 percent is almost certainly a gross underestimate.

There could never be a precise calculation or, perhaps, even unanimous agreement on definitions of unemployment. All that is certain is that more - probably much more - than a quarter of the workforce is without work.

Many of the unemployed are relatively unskilled or totally lacking in the saleable skills demanded by an industrialised society.

"But we also have many skilled people who cannot find jobs," says Communication Workers' Union media officer Mfanafuthi Sithebe. He maintains that the constant cry about a lack of local skills is often "a guise for the introduction of cheaper labour".

Sithebe points out that globalisation has created a breed of highly mobile skilled workers desperate for jobs and who can virtually travel the world seeking employment.

"India seems to have produced a surplus of information and communication technology specialists and they have become a new international migrant labour force," he says.

Like migrant workers historically, these highly skilled workers are often willing to work for much less and accept poorer conditions than the norm in the host country.

"This is a classic example of the race to the bottom on a global scale," Sithebe adds.

The global spread of call centres and car and engineering plants is seen by the union movement as having a direct bearing on local employment.

"Vehicle manufacturers have used us here to undermine workers in countries such as Germany," says National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) media officer Mziwakhe Hlangani.

He notes that the generally lower-cost motor industries in countries such as South Africa boomed at the expense of German workers, creating a situation that pitted worker against worker.

"The result was that German workers agreed to accept a downgrading of their benefits in order to keep jobs in Germany," he says.

Numsa shop stewards at the Ford plant in Silverton, Pretoria, maintained this week that political pressure from the labour movement in Sweden will see production of the Volvo S40 car moved from Pretoria to Sweden.

Ford spokesperson Ben Pillay denies that any decision has been made, but Numsa negotiators maintain they have been told production of the S40 at Silverton would cease on March 1.

"Now management says: 'We are making fewer models, but creating more jobs'. It's nonsense," says Hlangani.

Pillay admits that "market forces" will determine the fate of 460 Silverton workers on one-year contracts.

For the unions, this is another example of why statistics and management claims should not be taken at face value.

"Especially when it comes to jobs, it's a question of quality first, as well as quantity," says Cosatu's Craven.


 * From: http://busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=3084863**