Will JZ bring disasterous labour policies ?
problems@gmail
he, as could be expected introduced laws with unanticipated
consequences [to him] -- which were subsequently rolled back,
somewhat ?
Can anybody remember how the ANC boys, including Mboweni
were nice and trim, before they gained power ?
Don't they know that obesity is life threatening and not just an
African status-symbol of power & success ?
The recent constitutional court decision, available on line as a
*.pdf, Case CCT 40/07
CUSA v TAO YING METAL INDUSTRIES
shows the dissenting decision as stateing:
> "Finally, Ngcobo J states in one sentence that the exemption
> should be read in the way he proposes "because, on the facts
> of this case, a labour regime that enabled the greater
> exploitation of black people in the homelands as part of the
> apartheid scheme . . . would . . . be kept in force for longer"
>
> With respect, this argument ignores the undisputed facts on
> the record before us. Those facts make plain that when the
> leather industry required leather companies in Botshabelo
> to pay the wages provided for in its main agreement and
> did not issue exemptions, all the leather companies in
> Botshabelo closed, with the devastating consequence of job
> losses.
>
> Accordingly, when the Department of Labour realised that
> the metal and engineering industries bargaining council
> was about to register employers in Botshabelo, it requested
> the bargaining council to explore ways of ensuring that
> businesses were not forced to close as a result of being
> required to pay wages beyond their means. It was at least
> partly as a result of this intervention that the council
> appointed a team of investigators to visit the employer's
> premises and, in particular, to investigate the financial
> circumstances of the employer. It was after this visit that
> the exemptions were granted. In the light of the
> intervention by the Department of Labour, it seems likely
> that the exemptions were granted to avoid further job
> losses in Botshabelo. In my view, the one-sentence
> argument relied upon by Ngcobo J ignores this complex
> economic and social background. This Court should be
> slow to base its reasoning on such arguments, particularly
> when they have not been raised either by the union or the
> employer, and when they are likely to mask complex social
> and economic realities, possibly with harmful consequences,
> such as job losses.
>
It says a lot for SA'a freedom of expression, that at least
a dissenting opinion from the constitutional court can be
given & published.
In this case, the [apparently Chinese] enterpreneur who
employed over 300 natives, who would otherwise be
unemployed, had to fight through several layers of hearings.
He won at the supreme court of appeals, before the union
took it to the constitutional court.
== Chris Glur.