COSATU Media Monitor, 9 December 2010

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1. Workers

1.1 EarlyBird strike ends in permanent jobs

By Samantha Enslin-Payne, Business Report, 9 December 2010

EarlyBird Farm will employ 270 casual workers on a permanent basis in terms of an agreement with the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) that ended a two-week strike at its Olifantsfontein operation.

Fawu Gauteng provincial chairman Norman Chauke said yesterday that the company, a division of JSE-listed Astral Foods, employed 611 permanent staff members, who were outnumbered by its 1 170 casual workers.

Following the agreement 270 casual staff would be employed permanently next year, with 150 put on the full-time payroll from January 3 and the balance before the end of December next year.

Chauke said the major issue for the strikers had been the permanent employment of casual workers, who outnumber full-time staff.

EarlyBird is based in Gauteng and Mpumalanga and its activities include parent rearing, laying, hatcheries, broiler production, processing, sales and distribution.

It is the largest national poultry producer of individual quick frozen products with a strong presence in the retail and informal markets.

Earlybird’s brands include Goldi and Festive.

Astral poultry division managing director Theo Delport declined to comment yesterday, saying the terms of the agreement were confidential.

Astral Foods said in a statement yesterday that negotiations with Fawu regarding a wage strike at Earlybird Farm’s Olifantsfontein plant had been amicably resolved. An agreement had been reached and signed by both parties that would lead to striking workers returning to work on Sunday.

Chauke said Fawu was aiming to ensure at least a 50:50 split between casual and full time staff. For the balance of the casual workers Fawu will resume discussions with the company to “see how to minimise casual labour further”.

Delport said the use of casual staff, who were supplied by a labour broker, was due to the volatile fresh and frozen chicken market, in which demand varied considerably.

The agreement between Fawu and EarlyBird Farm included a 6.5 percent wage increase, while the union had asked for an 8 percent increase.

Fawu opted not to pursue the medical aid subsidy this year, but would include it in next year’s wage negotiations, Chauke said.

Delport said production and quality had not been affected during the strike.

Astral Foods’ shares were little changed yesterday, closing 1c up at R126.01.

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1.2 Numsa members down tools

Vusi Xaba, Sowetan, 9 December 2010

ABOUT 600 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa yesterday downed tools at BHP Billiton in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, demanding wage increase and better working conditions.

The parties have been engaged in protracted negotiations since April.

Numsa is demanding the following:

A 12percent salary hike;
50percent employer contribution to the medical aid scheme;
Night shift allowance of 12percent;
Study assistance of R50000 in the event of retrenchments;
Banning of labour brokers;
Six months fully paid maternity leave; and
Full-time health and safety shop stewards.

Numsa regional secretary, Mbuso Ngubane, said they were expecting more workers to join the strike today.

"Some workers were on a night shift when the strike started this morning (yesterday). We are expecting 700 of all our members to be on strike tomorrow (today)."

Ngubane said the union was enraged by employer's conduct in which they called employees individually to persuade them to accept a 7,5percent salary hike.

"That was undermining the spirit of negotiations. You cannot be negotiating in good faith if you call workers on the side coercing them to sign for an increase that was not agreed upon by a union," Ngubane said.

BHP Billiton is a mineral resource company specialising in smelting of copper.

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1.3 BHP smelter workers strike for bigger raise

CARLI LOURENS, Business Day, 9 December 2010

BHP Billiton workers began a strike for higher pay at the company’s largest aluminium smelter in Richards Bay yesterday.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), which is demanding a 12% wage increase, said more employees would join the 200 who began the walkout at the Hillside and Bayside smelters owned by world’s largest mining company.

Numsa represents 700 of the 900 workers at the plants.

"More will join as the workers from the other shifts start," Numsa regional secretary Mbuso Ngubane said yesterday .

The strike at BHP Billiton’s smelters is the latest in a slew of strikes at SA’s mines.

Miners at Northam Platinum recently ended a 43-day strike after securing wage increases of as much as 13%.

Numsa members had rejected BHP Billiton’s pay offer of 7,5%, Mr Ngubane said.

"Our offer is more than fair and reasonable," the company said yesterday . The offer of 7,5% had been accepted by more than 70% of employees at its local aluminium unit, the company said.

The union’s two-year wage agreement expired in August, and the union claimed that it had been in negotiations with the company over wage increases and working conditions since April.

Solidarity, the other active union at the Richards Bay smelters, accepted the company’s 7,5% wage increase offer.

Numsa is demanding a 12% across-the-board increase; a 50% employer contribution to medical aid; R50000 study assistance in the event of retrenchments; total banning of labour brokers; six months of paid maternity leave; and full-time health and safety stewards.

BHP is the seventh-largest aluminium producer, with output of 1,2-million metric tons in the 2010 fiscal year.

Its Hillside smelter — with capacity of 715000 tons — is the biggest smelter in the southern hemisphere, while its Bayside smelter adds about another 96000 tons, BHP Billiton says.

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1.4 Goodwood prison warders locked outside again

Nathan Adams, Eyewitness News, 9 December 2010

Trade union Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) on Wednesday applied for a court interdict to enable 43 Goodwood prison warders to return to their posts.

Wednesday marked the second day the guards have been locked out of jail. Popcru agrees changing their shifts without consulting the union is unlawful.

Popcru’s Mncedisi Mbolekwa argued that their members are being turned away.

“Our workers are back at work, they are coming to the very same shift which was agreed upon, but it is the employer who is refusing to allow them to work,” he said.

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2. South Africa

2.1 ANCYL relations likely to dominate YCL conference

Stephen Grootes, Eyewitness News, 9 December 2010

The Young Communist League’s national conference officially started on Wednesday morning.

One of the issues that will dominate the agenda is the body’s relationship with the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) - which is at its lowest levels ever. ANCYL President Julius Malema has publically insulted SACP leaders Blade Nzimande and Jeremy Cronin.

The booing of Malema at last year’s SACP conference and claims of a broad anti-communist agenda have added strain to relations.

The conference will also see elections on Thursday with Buti Manamela widely expected to retain his post after winning the support of at least five provinces.

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2.2 Unisa denies union’s claim about top job

SUE BLAINE, Business Day, 9 December 2010

A CLAIM by the National Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) that a judge had found the University of SA’s (Unisa’s) appointment of Prof Mandla Makhanya as its new vice-chancellor to be irregular and needing review was incorrect, the university said yesterday.

Unisa is embroiled in a legal dispute over Prof Makhanya’s appointment, which some on the council claim was irregular because the university council appointed him when three university bodies recommended Prof David Musoma instead.

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande should appoint an assessor to probe problems at Unisa, Nehawu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said yesterday. These problems included Prof Makhanya’s appointment after "a judge confirming what Nehawu has been saying all along, that the appointment of Prof Makhanya as the new vice- chancellor was irregular and needs to be reviewed".

Mr Pamla sent as proof a court order, granted on November 19, which says that Prof Makhanya’s appointment is "subject to the outcome of a review application". The court order says nothing about the validity of Prof Makhanya’s appointment.

Unisa convocation chairman Themba Sono, who approached the North Gauteng High Court last month because of his displeasure over Prof Makhanya’s appointment, said there had been no subsequent rulings. A court date has not been set.

Unisa spokeswoman Doreen Gough said the university statute allowed the council to make its own decision when confirming appointments, and Prof Makhanya had a clear majority of votes. Prof Makhanya has been appointed to succeed Prof Barney Pityana, who retires at the end of the year, and whose tenure has been controversial at times.

Prof Pityana said the university was convinced Prof Makhanya’s appointment was valid, and he would be inaugurated as planned in February.

Nehawu queried the relation- ship between Unisa and Merchant Consultancy, which was originally employed to assess the university’s call centre and which the university is considering contracting to run the centre.

Ms Gough said the call centre had "always been a problem". Retrenched staff would be redeployed if the call centre was "outsourced". Unisa was considering outsourcing because the centre was so big it needed specialised professional management.

Nehawu has also accused Prof Pityana of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement.

Ms Gough said Unisa had "never had" a qualified audit.

Mr Pamla questioned why the costs of building had risen from R94m to more than R242m . Ms Gough said costs went up annually. The new building was on a slope and the engineering was more complex than expected.

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2.3 NH1 plan will double taxes, says economist

TAMAR KAHN, Business Day, 9 December 2010

CAPE TOWN — The African National Congress’s (ANC’s) proposals for funding National Health Insurance (NHI) will mean doubling personal taxes and could see effective marginal tax rates for those earning R2m a year rise to 72%, according to independent health economist Alex van den Heever.

"It is ludicrous. It just can’t be done," he said yesterday.

Mr van den Heever’s comments add to growing debate about the feasibility of the goals put forward by the ANC in its discussion document on NHI, released at its national general council in September.

He has cast doubt on the financial assumptions made by the ANC.

Mr van den Heever’s analysis is published in the latest edition of the annual SA Health Review .

The ANC is proposing an NHI fund which would collect revenue and purchase health services for the country. It plans to pay for these by raising public health expenditure from 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 8%, and using higher taxes to raise the extra money.

Mr van den Heever argued that this would place an untenable strain on households.

According to the ANC’s NHI discussion document, the extra 5% of GDP for healthcare expenditure will be raised from a new earmarked tax framework and a general increase in taxes, which could include higher personal taxes and VAT.

The new system should be phased in from 2012, starting with earmarked taxes that will add 2% of GDP to funds already allocated to the public health budget.

"As the taxable income of taxpayers amounts to roughly 24% of GDP, an amount of 5% of GDP raised from existing taxpayers would require a 20% increase in taxes if distributed proportionately. This would require a doubling of existing personal taxes from an average of 20,4% presently to 41,2%," Mr van den Heever said.

A worker earning R154000 a year would see their effective tax rate change from 14,5% to 29,2%, assuming that the government applied a progressive tax regime, he said. However, if a proportional tax was applied, this worker’s effective tax rate would rise to 35,3% — roughly the level currently paid by people earning in the region of R2m.

The ANC’s policy adviser on NHI, Tebogo Phadu, said Mr van den Heever was on a "misinformation warpath". "He is not just critical of NHI, but anti-NHI."

He said most middle-class South Africans were burdened by the high costs of medical aid contributions. "What the NHI proposes is not more burdens for the middle class, but an evenly spread-out contribution."

The South African Revenue Service administered huge resources at an administrative cost of 3%, and this was the aim of the NHI, he said.

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2.4 Health spending perpetuating inequality: research

The New Age, 9 December 2010

Government spending policies which favour wealthier provinces has resulted in healthcare in post-apartheid South Africa not improving much, according to results of a study by an Oxford University professor released on Thursday.

"There was great optimism that the end of apartheid in South Africa would tackle profound inequalities in health," said Dr David Stuckler, who led the research.

"However, when you look at the data the situation has, in many respects, not changed much. Our study found that part of the problem owes to long-standing shortages of doctors, clinics and infrastructure, making it impossible to address adequately the health needs of deprived black populations."

They found that, for example, in 2007, the Northern Cape had twice as many doctors and more than four times as many hospitals per head of population than the poorest province of Limpopo.

But, the Northern Cape received the most government funding per head of population at US168 per capita, compared with US101 in Limpopo.

"The research paper, published in the American Journal of Public Health, argues that President Nelson Mandela's ambitions to address historical inequalities in the health system are far from being realised," a statement read.

They found that a combination of policy changes in the late 1990s created a cycle where the provinces with the greatest health needs attracted the least government health spending.

"Inequalities in health care are not only historical; they also appear to influence ongoing allocations."

Health system capacity, measured by the numbers of doctors and hospitals, emerged as a significant driver of inequalities in health spending.

Places with existing private hospitals attracted more health funding, but the same was not true for existing public hospitals.

"This cycle appears to have created an infrastructure-inequality trap, in which capacity determines new funds, thus widening existing inequalities in health care infrastructure." - Sapa

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2.5 Transnet pipeline to cost R23.4bn

Business Report, 9 December 2010

Transnet's new 550km-long fuel pipeline between Durban and Gauteng is expected to cost R23.4 billion, more than double the original estimate of R11.1 billion, the project's director said in Sandton, Johannesburg on Wednesday.

“This pipeline would have cost R23.4 billion (anyway),” said Neville Eve, explaining the factors that contributed to the increase.

These included a change of the Durban site, environmental requirements, changes to engineering and hydraulics and security features.

The additional funds would be raised from the parastatal's own balance sheet, and by issuing bonds on the international market. - Sapa

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2.6 2.6 Cosatu wants to oust Kiviet

Mawande Jack, The New Age, 8 December 2010

A major shake-up, including the possible firing of the of Premier, Noxolo Kiviet, is imminent, according to sources close to the provincial government.

The campaign to oust Kiviet is being steered by Cosatu and the SACP in the province. Both parties want to replace her with the ANC chairperson, Phumulo Masualle.

Since July, Cosatu and the SACP have voiced their displeasure Kiviet's leadership style. The push for the removal of other key figures within the cabinet such as local government and traditional affairs MEC Sicelo Gqobana, education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase and human settlement MEC Brigette Mabandla is understood to be part of this campaign.

While SACP provincial secretary Xolile Nqatha declined to say if Kiviet's removal was imminent, he confirmed that more changes in government should be expected after a provincial cabinet reshuffle last month.

There was talk of a recent meeting between ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and the provincial executive committee to decide Kiviet's fate. ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu could not be reached for comment.

The ANC recently dissolved three of the party's regional structures in preparation for Buffalo City to be declared a metro.

While Masualle appeared to be the logical choice for Kiviet's replacement, finance MEC Mcebisi Jonas was also considered a contender. Masualle is also SACP national treasurer and was health MEC. He is now responsible for planning and policy monitoring.

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