Tough Xmas for SA
2008-11-23 07:28
Pretoria - Workers in sectors most exposed to the ravages of the turbulence in the economy will have to endure great financial pressures over the Christmas holidays - and those pressures might extend well into the new year.
Companies may ask their employees to stay at home longer as they look to weather the storm without cutting jobs. Manufacturing businesses under pressure have told unions that workers may need to take extended Christmas leave as an alternative to retrenchments.
Keeping plants closed for longer, and shorter working hours, may become necessary to protect jobs, says economist Mandla Maleka. And salaries may have to be lowered.
Maleka says other strategies to save jobs may include government providing tax incentives (exemptions) for export-oriented businesses to lessen the cost burden.
He says upping spending on infrastructure is another option.
"We have never been here before. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures," he says.
However, trade unions say any job-saving strategies should be arrived at in consultation with workers. The national executive committee of the National Union of Mineworkers resolved at its three-day meeting which ended on Friday to urge Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to convene an urgent meeting of industry, labour and government.
"In light of the current potential threats to employment the NUM calls on the Department of Minerals and Energy to urgently convene a leadership stakeholder meeting to look at how the current problems can be avoided," said NUM general secretary Frans Baleni.
Baleni said NUM had some suggestions to put forward, and called for sector-specific solutions.
Dennis George of the union federation Fedusa says any strategies will have to be a result of extensive consultation.
"In this economic storm I would encourage our unions to seriously consider any alternative to retrenchments," he says.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), whose members have been exposed to the worst ravages of the economic turmoil, said in a statement heavy with rhetoric that "everything must be done to ensure that no worker loses a job because the capitalists of the world have corruptly and criminally mismanaged their global financial system.
"We, the working class, have always known that the global capitalist system will never deliver us from our poverty, joblessness, homelessness, hunger and all the other inhumane treatments it continues to inflict upon us.
"Further, we wish to advise the government to take immediate measures to ensure that workers' pension funds and all workers' bank deposits are secured and protected from the global financial meltdown.
"There is no alternative to state control and regulation of banks and financial flows. The US and European countries have abandoned the idea of the anarchy of the free market - they are putting in place controls and nationalising banks."
Auto assembly sector
- General Motors SA retrenched 312 employees and served notice to lay off 562 hourly paid workers and a further 20 salaried employees.
- Ford was in consultations in terms of Section 189A of the Labour Relations Act over more than 200 jobs in Port Elizabeth and 700 in Silverton. The company is proposing voluntary severance packages.
- Toyota has discontinued its production of Hi-Aces. This could lead to retrenchments.
Motor retail sector
There are no definite figures, but because of the downturn in vehicle sales the entire motor retail sector is affected in sales, service and parts businesses. So far these retrenchments are the direct result of the internal crisis of high food prices and high interest rates causing massive repossessions.
The union envisages that once the crisis in Ford, GM and other car companies hits the country, this will result in further retrenchments in the auto assembly sector, setting off a ripple effect in component supplier companies in the motor component manufacturing sector.
The union said it was generally agreed that every job in an auto assembly company created five in the component manufacturing, service and sales sector.
Engineering
- Steel maker AcerlorMittal was the first to announce a cutback in production. At Mittal, Saldanha Bay, which is export-dependent, about 400 workers will be put on extended leave over Christmas.
- Other resources companies organised by Numsa are also expected to be affected.
Major parts of the engineering industry are suppliers to the mining industry. As the mining industry continues to announce thousands of retrenchments, Numsa expects retrenchments and short time will increase in mine-supply companies.