This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Sungula Nkabinde writes that mining companies’ quest for improved productivity is sure to be meet with resistance from labour, especially because the simplest way to achieve that goal is through increased mechanisation.
Yet, the industry prefers to speak of ‘modernisation’, which refers not only to replacing people with machines, but upskilling the workforce to be able to operate more machinery. Speaking on Thursday at the Joburg Indaba, veteran unionist Dr James Motlatsi said: Any modernisation that comes with unemployment is problematic for me. Because that would mean that they are running away from the problems of dealing with labour.” He and Joseph Mathunjwa of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) explained the concerns of the labour movement that ‘white capitalist’ mine companies seemed to not be willing enough to address legacy issues of apartheid. On whether the trust between labour and business would ever be restored, Mathunjwa said it would be impossible as long as wage disparity between the highest- and lowest-paid workers in mining companies remained as big as it is now.
- Read this report in Mineweb
- Read too, Froneman delivers unflinching view of SA mining legacy, calls for rapprochement, at Miningmx
- And also, Create unresistable force with labour to bring about mining change: Godsell, at Mining Weekly
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page