Today's Labour News
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.
Tarnished MQA advised to check into deceitful e-mails
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Business Report writes that Sekelaxabiso, a leading black-owned professional firm specialising in internal auditing, has recommended that the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA) board review all contracts in a bid to determine compliance with its procedures and its exposure to possible litigation, irregular expenditure or conduct.
Advocate Boyce Mkhize advised that the MQA board should consider an independent forensic audit to investigate the source of bogus e-mails that had cast aspersions on the authority.
He said this would help in dealing with reputational damage already caused to it.
The recommendations come in the wake of claims of procurement irregularities, sexual harassment, improper recruitment, flouting of governance, bribery and fraud against the authority, which is responsible for the administration of skills development programmes in the mining and minerals sector.
The MQA approached SekelaXabiso last November to investigate.
Among allegations SekelaXabiso investigated were claims that chief financial officer Mfundo Mdingi contracted a forensic investigation, authorised and paid R5 million and never presented a report to the board.
It was alleged that R12m was paid to Generational Training and Development, a service provider which was not an approved nor registered.
Mkhize found the allegation that R5m for a forensic report was without basis. He said the firm was in fact paid R495 000 and not R5m.
Mkhize also found that the audit committee paid R6.9m to Sema, forensic service provider without following policy procedure, and the contract constituted “irregular expenditure.”
Mkhize noted that VAT had been overstated in terms of the contract, in that at 14 percent of the total amount to be charged it should have been R1.90m and not R2.099m.
It was found that Mdingi had been fairly recruited.
Mkhize cleared acting chief executive Tebogo Mmotla of sexual harassment, saying there was no evidence to support the allegation.
He also dismissed claims of alleged collusive relationship between Mmotla and acting chairperson Mthokozisi Zondi.
Mkhize said that there was also no evidence that bribes were solicited.
The original of this report by Dineo Faku is on page 15 of Business Report of 5 December 2017
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Afternoon roundup of labour news on Tuesday, 5 December 2017
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Tuesday, 5 December 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Monday, 4 December 2017
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Monday, 4 December 2017.
Roundup of weekend labour news on Monday, 4 December 2017
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that appeared since Friday, 1 December 2017.
Magwa tea estate given reprieve
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HeraldLive reports that the Grahamstown High Court has extended to July the business rescue process under way to resuscitate the beleaguered Magwa tea project near Lusikisiki.
In terms of the law, courts generally allow companies just three months in business rescue.
But this is the fifth extension granted to Magwa business rescue practitioner Garth Voigt who faces the highly complex task of turning around a project that has faced disastrous and repeated failure over more than two decades.
Numerous large financial bailouts by the province have failed to turn around the tea estate and processing plant, which has not produced significant amounts of tea since its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s.
Despite this, it is the single biggest employer in the area.
According to court papers, in 2010 it produced some 2 700 tons of tea and was once again approaching sustainability.
But workers at the estate went on the rampage when their demand for a 98% increase in wages was refused. Management was forced to flee and the estate and its infrastructure was largely destroyed.
Until it was placed under business rescue in February last year, it produced almost no tea and governance and accountability were non-existent.
The provincial government had now provided a guarantee of a bailout of some R110-million, which Voigt said in an affidavit had begun to trickle through.
The benefits were already being felt, with the tea estate this month producing its first harvest in years, albeit humble. He said there had been expressions of interest from private investors in investing in other crops including macadamia nuts and avocados.
Voigt said safety and security remained a problem but the police had expressed an interest in establishing a base at the tea project, with regular horse patrols.
He said with the extension in place until July next year he could cement private investor interest and formulate a business plan.
About 240 people were employed to establish the tea estate as a functioning entity and this was likely to escalate to 1,000 once the pruning process began.
Voigt’s correspondent attorney Mark Nettelton confirmed that Judge Gerald Bloem had extended the business rescue process to July.
The original of this report by Adrienne Carlisle appeared at HeraldLive on 29 November 2017
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Afternoon roundup of labour news on Thursday, 30 November 2017
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Thursday, 30 November 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Wednesday, 29 November 2017
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Wednesday, 29 November 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Tuesday, 28 November 2017
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Tuesday, 28 November 2017.
Public sector wage deal wide open
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Business Report writes that the scene is set for acrimonious public sector wage negotiations after the public service unions at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council said yesterday they were readying themselves for a bitter fight with the government.
The unions comprise Sadtu, PSA, Nehawu, Sapu, Denosa, Popcru, Naptosa, Hospersa, Nupsaw, and Natu.
The public sector unions said they were disappointed by the government’s lax and indifferent approach to the ongoing wage negotiations.
“We want to caution the government not to negotiate with the workers through the media, because that will muddy the waters and complicate the negotiations. We are not averse to confrontation if provoked and if they continue on this path the pushback will be ferocious and ugly,” the unions said.
The looming deadlock in negotiations comes days after both ratings agencies Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings flagged the rigidity of South Africa’s public sector wage bill as presenting a key risk to the country’s fiscal outlook.
S&P said South Africa’s external competitiveness problem had fiscal roots.
“For example, political considerations, through the influence of labour unions, make it extremely difficult to reverse recurrent annual increases in spending on the public sector wage bill, crowding out other areas of spending, such as infrastructure,” the agency said. The public sector unions are demanding between 10 to 12 percent in wage increases. Public servants have also spiked their housing allowance demands from R1 200 to R2 500.
Demands
The acting director-general of the Department of Public Service and Administration last week told legislators that the cost of meeting this year’s civil servant demands amounted to R282 billion.
Sanisha Packirisamy, an economist at Momentum Investments, said the public sector wage negotiations were taking place against tepid economic growth and a heavily constrained fiscus.
“The public sector wage bill has increasingly crowded out other areas of more useful expenditure,” Packirisamy said. Historically, public sectors have been a tumultuous affair. In 2010 1.3 million public servants, including nurses, health practitioners, and teachers, embarked on a 20-day strike for higher wages.
The strike was triggered after unions rejected government’s offer of 7 percent and a R700 housing allowance.
The public servants had demanded an 8.6 percent wage increase and R1 000 a month housing subsidy. After a gruelling three weeks, the parties agreed to a 7.5 percent increase. Economists then estimated that the strike had cost the state more than R1bn a day.
In the medium-term budget policy statement, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said a shortfall in government’s compensation budgets would increase dramatically if public sector wage talks led to agreements that included salary increases above inflation.
The minister also spoke on how progression and promotions have become automatic in many sectors and as a result, most public servants received an automatic cost-of-living adjustment and an increase from salary-scale progression.
The original of this report by Kabelo Khumalo is on page 17 of Business Report of 28 November 2017
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Nersa gives Eskom nod on smelters
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Business Report writes that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has approved Eskom’s application for a two-year incentive pricing package for the Silicon Smelter plants in Polokwane and eMalahleni.
Eskom made its case for a negotiated pricing agreement to Nersa earlier this year after Silicon Smelters, which is owned by global silicon metal and silicon-based alloys producer, Ferroglobe, asked the power utility to supply electricity at an “appropriate” price for the company to reconsider its decision to cease silicon production at its two sites.
Ferroglobe stopped silicon production in South Africa at the end of June last year and attributed the move to weak global demand and prices, as well as uncompetitive cost production relative to the group’s global silicon metal portfolio.
Nersa last week confirmed that the regulator had approved the application in August. The regulator said it would release the reasons for its decision in due course.
The application comes amid Eskom’s declining sales to the industrial and mining sectors. According to a presentation by the Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa (EIUG) at the recent Nersa hearings on Eskom’s application for a 19.9 percent increase tariff application, Eskom’s sales to the industrial and mining sectors were down 14 percent compared to the levels in 2011.
“This is due mainly to industrial and mining capacity shutting either permanently or temporarily, or moving offshore. Unfortunately, without immediate and sustainable intervention, it is unlikely this downward trend will change,” EIUG chief executive, Xolani Mbanga, said at the hearings.
According to a Nersa consultation paper on Eskom’s application for the incentive pricing package, the power utility expected surplus capacity to peak at 14 000MW within the next few years, “yet currently their sales are down and this places an added burden on the consumer, because it pushes the electricity prices up.
“The challenge is that on the one hand, there are energy intensive industries that are struggling to survive and on the other hand, Eskom is experiencing a surplus of capacity and needs to sell more electrical energy to cover its fixed costs,” Nersa pointed out in the consultation paper.
The company told Eskom that it needed the negotiated pricing agreements for it to reconsider its decision to exclude production from South Africa in its global production plan for 2017/18, in order to keep the local plants open.
The approval of the incentive pricing package would entice the group to include production from South Africa in a revised production plan.
The company said in the face of the pressure on the silicon metal price, it had negotiated electricity prices in a number of jurisdictions.
This, it said, placed pressure on its South African subsidiary to remain competitive within the group.
The consultation paper said silicon metal producers around the world were facing difficult conditions as silicon prices were at their lowest levels.
The pricing agreement was also meant to save 3 600 jobs that would be lost if the companies ceased operations.
The original of this report by Siseko Njobeni is on page 18 of Business Report of 27 November 2017
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Afternoon roundup of labour news on Monday, 27 November 2017
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of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared thus far on
Monday, 27 November 2017.
Roundup of weekend labour news on Monday, 27 November 2017
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In our weekend roundup, see summaries of our
selection of South African labour-related stories
that appeared since Friday, 24 November 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Thursday, 23 November 2017
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Thursday, 23 November 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Tuesday, 21 November 2017
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Tuesday, 21 November 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Monday, 20 November 2017
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Monday, 20 November 2017.
Roundup of weekend labour news on Monday, 20 November 2017
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that appeared since Friday, 17 November 2017.
Fed-up delivery staff in Port Elizabeth down tools
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HeraldLive reports that vulgar language, salaries not paid on time and threats of job losses prompted the delivery staff of an online retailer to down tools in Newton Park yesterday.
The strike by 14 employees has prompted Takealot.com – which offers customers the opportunity to shop online and for their goods to be delivered straight to their door – to look into their claims against their manager as a matter of urgency.
The retailer operates its own delivery and logistics network by working with independently owned franchise partners across the country who run and manage local delivery team branches.
Newton Park is one such branch, serving the Port Elizabeth region.
The 14 employees said they had been scheduled to receive their salaries on Thursday, but when the money did not reflect in their bank accounts, they had approached branch manager Lee-Anne Johnson.
In a heated voice clip recorded by the employees, a voice which the workers allege to be that of Johnson could be heard shouting and using foul language in a heated exchange with one of the employees.
The employee informed her he had stopped along the road to urinate when he was robbed of R1 200.
In the clip, a voice is heard: “What’s your problem? You got robbed. You are the reason the salaries are f****** delayed. Have we never paid you? You don’t decide to start a strike with me. Don’t you ever f*** with me.
“There is a proper way of doing things. Go to work. I will see to it that salaries get paid. This company will not run away with your money.”
When contacted, Johnson said: “I don’t have any comment.
“We are busy dealing with the matter. As soon as we have information we will contact you.”
The employees – who spoke on condition of anonymity – claimed Johnson verbally and emotionally abused them.
“Treat us with respect. We appeal for new management with immediate effect,” the group said in a joint statement.
Takealot chief marketing officer Julie-Anne Walsh said they had not been aware of the incident until yesterday.
“The franchisee owner agreed with employees in advance that payment of wages was to be amended as from this week to run on a weekly and monthly basis as opposed to daily.
“Unfortunately there was a misunderstanding regarding the exact payment date. We can, however, confirm that all wages have been processed,” she said.
Walsh said they took the matter very seriously and did not condone the type of behaviour displayed by the franchisee involved.
“Takealot’s values include treating colleagues with respect and, although we are not directly involved in franchisee employee relations, we are working with the owner of the franchise to ensure that the matter is dealt with urgently,” Walsh said.
The original of this report by Hendrick Mphande is at HeraldLive
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Afternoon roundup of labour news on Wednesday, 15 November 2017
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Wednesday, 15 November 2017.
Afternoon roundup of labour news on Tuesday, 14 November 2017
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Tuesday, 14 November 2017.
FEDUSA condemns barbaric attack on traffic police officer
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Press Statement dated 13 November 2017
Roundup of weekend labour news on Monday, 13 November 2017
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In our Monday roundup, see summaries
of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared so far on
Wednesday, 8 November 2017.
Traffic cop fines senior colleague
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The New Age reports that scores of motorists watched in disbelief when an on-duty senior traffic officer attached to the Thembisile Hani local municipality was issued with a R500 traffic fine by his provincial counterpart on the notorious Moloto Road in Phola Park near KwaMhanga on Thursday morning.
This followed after the local traffic supervisor, Themba Godfrey Skhosana, 41, in full uniform and in an unmarked state vehicle, failed to stop at a four way intersection.
Thereafter, his provincial counterpart, who was monitoring the intersection, pulled him off and issued him with a traffic fine in full view of The New Age reporter, who was driving behind Skhosana and witnessed his disrespect for traffic regulations.
When approached for comment on breaking the law, Skhosana said: Journalist, look here, I am a traffic supervisor. Do not worry, here is the fine you wanted the officer to issue me with and I will approach the court of law to reduce the fine. What else do you want? Let me go because I’m in a hurry to report to work.”
Thembisile Hani local municipality’s spokesperson, Simphiwe Mashiyane, said they were shocked by the conduct of the senior law enforcement officer. “Such behaviour cannot be tolerated because no one is above the law. We call on our traffic officers to also practice what they preach. Everyone has to obey the law regardless of his or her position.”
Community safety, security and liaison provincial spokesperson Moeti Mmusi said law enforcers failing to adhere to the law should also be dealt with harshly. “”We applaud the provincial officer for issuing the local officer with a fine for breaking the law. We once again thank The New Age for ensuring that the officer also leaves the spot with a fine like other law breakers.”
Mmusi went on to say: As the province, we strongly condemn such behaviour and appeal to all our law enforcers to respect what they are enforcing to others as well.”
This report by France Nyaka appeared on page 21 of The New Age of 10 November 2017
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Stefanutti shrinks its headcount by 3,000 in past two years
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Business Report writers that Stefanutti Stocks, the JSE-listed construction group, has reduced its employee headcount in the past two years from about 13,000 to 10,000 people as the number of its construction projects had shrunk.
Willie Meyburgh, chief executive of Stefanutti Stocks, said yesterday that the group was forced to proactively rightsize the business and expected a further reduction in the headcount in the next few years.
Meyburgh’s comments follow the Construction Industry Development Board this week reporting that the industry shed 140 000 jobs between the first and second quarters of this year and the job losses by the industry total about 240 000 jobs this calendar year.
Meyburgh said trading conditions remained extremely challenging and, although there were opportunities, they were fiercely contested. He said Stefanutti Stocks’s order book at end-August was R13.9 billion, which was almost the same when the group reported its annual financial results in May this year. “Even in this difficult environment, when work takes a long time to get to the market, we find the drawings are all available and the documents have been prepared, but it is just not getting to tender stage in the private and public stage,” he said.
However, Meyburgh said mining houses were putting out more work for tender for mining infrastructure and there were extremely good opportunities for open-pit mining.
On the infrastructure side, roads and bridges, marine and water and sanitation continued to offer opportunities for the group.
Meyburgh said the work prospects for Stefanutti Stocks for the next 24 months totalled R65bn, of which 38% represented cross-border work, but this had reduced from more than R100bn over the past four years.
“It’s not that the opportunities are not there,” he said. “It’s just that it takes so damn long to come to the market place, which is really what’s causing pressure on our business.”
Meyburgh said Stefanutti Stocks still managed to improve its operating profit in the six months to August, despite the shortage of infrastructure work and the ongoing challenging trading environment.
But Meyburgh said that the group still had a problem with slow payments from the governments of Zambia, Nigeria, Mozambique and in South Africa, especially from the human settlement department. The total amount outstanding was just above R700m, which was not in dispute. He added that one of the group’s clients in the oil and gas division had cancelled an R800m two-year contract in December, which had impacted on the division’s turnover and operating profit.
Read this report by Roy Cokayne in full on page 18 of Business Report of 10 November 2017
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Whirlpool workers on strike over housing
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Business Report writes that at least 900 workers at global home-appliance manufacturer Whirlpool have downed tools in KwaZulu-Natal in support of their demand for housing.
They have been on strike since Monday, because the employer was “refusing to engage” on their demands, according to the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa).
Mbuso Ngubane, Numsa’s regional secretary, said they had been negotiating with the employer to try to resolve the impasse, but to date no progress has been made. He said workers had made it clear they would not return to work until the company agreed to provide housing as part of the wage agreement. “The lowest paid worker at Whirlpool earns R43 per hour, and this makes accessing decent accommodation almost impossible.
In South Africa, more than 50 percent of the population live in poverty as a result of earning starvation wages,” said Ngubane.
The cabinet last week approved a national minimum wage of R20 an hour, to be implemented in May
The original of this report by Luyolo Mkentane is on page 17 of Business Report of 8 November 2017
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Afternoon roundup of labour news on Tuesday, 7 November 2017
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of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared so far on
Tuesday, 7 November 2017.
Roundup of labour news on Monday, 6 November 2017
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of our selection of South African labour-
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on Monday, 6 November 2017.
NUM calls for inquest into mine fatalities
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Business Report writes that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has called for an investigation into rising fatalities in the mining industry after two mineworkers died last week at AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng Mine, near Carletonville in North West. Six other miners are recovering in hospital following a fall-of-ground incident that was triggered by a seismic event of 1.1 magnitude at 3.6km around 9.30am on Thursday.
“A thorough investigation is needed to get to the bottom of the fatalities,” Erick Gcilitshana, NUM health and safety secretary said on Friday.
Gcilitshana said the increasing number of fall-of-ground incidents, particularly in Klerksdorp and Carletonville, was worrying. Two mineworkers died at the Mponeng mine in October, while two others died at AngloGold’s Kopanang mine in September due to fall-of-ground incidents.
Four mineworkers died in July at the Tau Lekoa mine, owned by Heaven Sent a Chinese venture capital firm, following a fall-of-ground incident and five others died at Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu mine in August.
“It is a point for serious concern for us. The principals, including chief executives, unionists and the officials from the Department of Mineral Resources, need to come together and discuss safety and how to achieve the vision of zero harm,” said Gcilitshana.
Deputy Mineral Resources Minister, Godfrey Oliphant said last month that the department had called for an urgent meeting to address fatalities in mines.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane in August appealed for extra caution to be taken on health and safety in the mines, following the accident at the Kusasalethu mine. He said at the time: “We are concerned about the accidents we are seeing in the industry. As we head towards the last quarter of the year, we are asking that employers and the workforce remain alert and continue to prioritise safety, and as the regulator we will be increasing inspections,” Zwane said at the time.
The DA on Friday said that it was concerned by news of yet another underground incident at the Mponeng mine in Carletonville. “Yesterday’s incident was the third at the mine in just over a month. South African mines are some of the deepest in the world and although they have become much safer in the last few years, there is no room for complacency,” the DA said.
Read this report by Dineo Faku in full on page 18 of Business Report of 6 November 2017
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Roundup on Monday, 6 November 2017 of weekend labour news
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of our selection of South African labour-related
stories that appeared since midafternoon
on Friday, 3 November 2017.
Roundup of labour news on Thursday, 26 October 2017
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In our Thursday roundup, see summaries
of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared since
midafternoon on Wednesday, 25 October 2017.
‘Compromise is needed in wage talks’
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Business Report writes that the National Treasury on Wednesday pleaded for a “fair and reasonable compromise” between the government and state employees in the current round of wage talks, charging that this was in the public interest.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said there needed to be an appreciation that the country was going through tough economic times and that public sector wage agreements must be affordable to the current fiscal framework. “The government will approach the wage negotiations with a view to getting the best deal in the current fiscal framework so that the deal we arrive at is affordable to the fiscus,” he said.
The Treasury said state employees’ compensation spending had grown more quickly than the overall budget in the past eight years, and accounted for 35.3 percent of consolidated expenditure in 2016/17, up from 32.9 percent in 2008/09.
In documents released yesterday as part of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement process, the Treasury said that since 2011 the government had been forced to restrict employee head count growth to accommodate rising salaries. Spending on compensation has continued to grow more quickly than nominal gross domestic product.
“A new civil service wage agreement in which salary increases exceed Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation, and without headcount reductions, would render the current expenditure limits difficult to achieve.
“The Medium-Term Expenditure Framework provides for an overall increase of 7.3 percent a year to accommodate improvements in conditions of service. Many departments are already at risk of exceeding this limit, even assuming that personnel numbers do not increase,” according to the documents.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said yesterday that the government needed to stop blaming teachers, nurses, police officers, prison warders, doctors and municipal street cleaners for the wage bill.
“It must reduce the out-of-control salaries of state-owned enterprises’ chief executives, executives and political office-bearers including the directors-general. We cannot blame nurses earning less than R200 000, while the chief executives of Transnet and Eskom are taking home more than R8 million annually,” Pamla said.
A CPI + 1 percent agreement would raise the national shortfall in 2018/19 to R8.2 billion, with the gap in provincial compensation budgets amounting to R4bn.
Negotiations on the next three year public-service wage agreement were under way. Public sector unions have already thrown down the gauntlet at the government, demanding salary increases of between 10 percent and 12 percent. One of the demands also advanced by the unions is a R2 500 housing allowance increase and the Public Investment Corporation investing in the Government Employees Housing Scheme.
Nazmeera Moola, the co-head of fixed income at Investec Asset Management, said that public sector wages needed to be controlled to stabilise the budget. “The two problems relating to public sector wages are the persistently high above-inflation wage increases and the dramatic growth in senior management positions, particularly among teachers, nurses and police,” Moola said.
The original of this report by Kabelo Khumalo appeared on page 21 of Business Report of 26 October 2017
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