NEDLAC HOLDS THIRD MEETING TO CONSIDER SACTWU NOTICE

A third meeting was held at Nedlac today to consider the notice of possible protest action tabled by the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) regarding the future of the textile, clothing and footwear sector.

The notice was served in terms of s77(1)(b) of the Labour Relations Act, which gives workers the right to embark on protest action to promote and protect their social and economic interests, if they follow certain procedures. Nedlac is required to consider the notice with a view to resolving the matter through a process of facilitation.

The broad reasons tabled by Sactwu as motivation for the intended protest action are job losses, retrenchments and factory closures in the clothing, textile and leather industries and their supply chain caused by a range of trade policies, other government policies and sourcing decisions by retailers.

At the last meeting of Nedlac's standing committee on Section 77 notices, which was attended by representatives from government, employer federations and Sactwu, it was agreed that the Department of Trade and Industry and Sactwu would meet bilaterally in order to further discuss the issues and report back to the committee.

Sactwu and the DTI reported today that there was agreement over a range of issues proposed by Sactwu, disagreement over three issues, and deadlock over a further three issues. The issues over which the parties reported they were deadlocked were:

• Freezing the tariff phase-down scheduled for 1 September 1999

• Retention of the existing footwear quota

• Trade Union involvement in the adjustment of quotas for Zimbabwe

Retailers present at the meeting reported that although they agreed that it was better to source their stock from South Africa, they could not commit themselves to sourcing entirely from South Africa. They also indicated that they could not support Sactwu's proposal that they should contribute 1% of turnover to a restructuring fund.

After considering the information that was presented at the meeting, the standing committee agreed that it would not convene any further meetings to consider the notice.

Acting Executive Director, Wendy Dobson, said "It is hoped that Sactwu, government and business will, despite this failure to agree on all of Sactwu's proposals, be able to continue to engage in dialogue and secure the future of the clothing and textile industry in South Africa."

According to the Labour RelationsAct, Section 77(1):

• A registered trade union or federation may table a notice of intended protest action (on a specific form), which must contain the reasons for and nature of the intended action.

• The matter giving rise to the notice must be considered in Nedlac in an attempt to resolve the matter.

• Thereafter, if attempts at resolution fail, the union or federation must serve a second notice on Nedlac of its intention to proceed with the protest action. This second notice must be served on Nedlac at least 14-days before the protest action starts.

Judgement as to whether these procedures have been followed rests with the Labour Court.