Labour

Employers and workers in South Africa do not trust each other

Frank Nxumalo from the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FEDUSA) says relations between employers and workers in South Africa are at an all time low. 

Trust deficit

Reflecting on the yearly Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, which typically ranks South Africa as having the worst employer and worker relations in the world, Nxumalo told Political Analysis South Africa on Friday, 4 May 2018 that there is undoubtedly a trust deficit between workers and their bosses.

He explained that trust between workers and employers in South Africa needs to be strengthened because “employers are often reluctant to open their books, so lots of workers don’t actually believe what employers are saying. They believe that something could be done to save jobs.”

Workers have little to celebrate

As workers around the country commemorated Worker’s Day on 1 May 2018, Nxumalo said most unions were in agreement that workers had little to celebrate.

“Mostly because of the retrenchments, thousands of workers have lost their jobs in the environment that the economy is in…the country has also been downgraded by the credit ratings agencies,” he said.

Collective responsibility

He added that workers understand that companies may sometimes face financial difficulties, but employers should rather inform their workers instead of leaving them out in the cold.

“Yes, companies may experience economic difficulties especially in a depressed [economic] environment, but they should take workers and their representatives into their confidence, so that jointly the workers and employers can agree on a way forward to rescue the company,” he said.

FEDUSA is currently lobbying for South African workers, as represented by trade unions, to sit on company boards, and partake in company management decisions, akin to the Codetermination system employed by German companies. The trade union federation believes that such a situation would improve labour relations in South Africa.