Africa

 

Poverty still affects half of Africa’s population who earns less than US$1 a day with approximately 70% of the workforce working in the agricultural sector.

 

Despite this national governments continue to push forward neo-liberal policies against workers rights, such as the right to join unions, collectively bargain and organise. Instead giving more rights to capital by allowing employers to hire and fire workers for example. This agenda is partly due to undue influence from International Financial Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Regional trading blocs like NEPAD fail to represent workers and communities when negotiating trade deals.

 

Across the region we are seeing a move towards more state intervention particularly around workers wages and conditions. Labour laws when amended or redrafted generally seek to undermine trade union rights. For example Zambia’s Industrial and Labour Relations Act 1997 was amended to strip down trade union recognition rights such as the right to collectively bargain and the right for unions to represent members through dispute handling procedures. The Employment Act also gives employers more flexibility with the hiring and firing of casuals creating more precarious work. The Minister for Labour can also intervene in determining the minimum wage as he/she sees fit without any union or other community involvement. In Zimbabwe with unemployment at 80% the situation is grave, most of the unemployed are young people in the 15-24 age group. The role of trade unions has diminished under Mugabe’s leadership, with more powers given to Ministers to determine the wages of workers and to resolve disputes.  Additionally Export Processing Zones came into effect in 1995 which exclude the Labour Relations Act thereby creating an underclass of workers who work in the Export Processing Zone. Trade Unions in Zimbabwe also continue to face high levels of government supported violent repression.

 

Namibia on the other hand has a better system of governance where in 1992 the New Labour Act established labour courts, a tripartite advisory council which involves trade unions and finally the wage commissions which was set up to determine wages particularly across the sectors. The Export Processing Zone Act implemented in 1995 was amended in 2001 due to consultations with the Nambian Trade Union Congress which then allowed for the application of the Labour Act in its entirety. Namibia has ratified almost all of the ILO Conventions except equal remuneration.

 

South Africa which has 63.6% of its labour force employed in the formal sector has one of the fastest growing trade union movements in the world with almost 2 million members. Whilst firms resort to casualisation, outsourcing and temporary employment contracts the Labour Relations Act does protect collective bargaining rights. Other Acts such as the Skills and Development Act were introduced to force employers to contribute 1% of their salary to a skills and training fund. Key issues for Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) are social security for poor, job creation, HIV/aids, multinational corporations and privitisation.