Government speech to the Nedlac Summit 2001

Read by Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin, on behalf of Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana

27 October 2001

Honourable Deputy President
Leaders of organized business and labour
Invited guests
Delegates

This has been an eventful year for social partnership, We have not had a dull moment from the successful conclusion of negotiations on labour law amendments to a highly robust round of collective bargaining coupled with the socio-economic protest actions. We have also witnessed intense bilateral discussions particularly between organized business and labour within the bipartite Millennium Labour Council.

How should we view our interaction over the last year? Firstly, and very significantly we should be proud of the tradition we are developing where we can engage, interact and fight with each other within a legitimate legal framework.

We have reached a point in our political development where none of us would ever dream of resorting to extremist or criminal methods to achieve our goals. Recent events have highlighted for us far more starkly than ever before in modern history that we all live in ONE world.

And we all need to make place for each other in this world. If not, the consequences, as we witnessed, are too ghastly to contemplate.

We have recognized that we too need to make place for each other in the workplaces that we share. Like there is ONE world, there is ONE workplace and ONE labour market in which we must co-operate.

This brings me to my second point. We should never take our much acclaimed social partnership for granted. We must value social partnership and make it work. In light of increasing international polarization, we need to be asking ourselves how we can nurture, consolidate and strengthen social partnership in our country and labour market.

I believe that we need to recommit ourselves to strengthening social partnership at a national, sectoral and workplace level. Let me look at how we can achieve this at the various levels.

Social dialogue at a national level

NEDLAC is and remains the most significant social dialogue institution at a national level. We all have a responsibility to ensure that we improve the quality of our social dialogue at this-level.

Did we in the past year, really live up to the commitments we made in the Declaration adopted at the 2000 AnnualSummit?

Did we engage openly and genuinely at NEDLAC on the critical challenges that we faced? 

Did we deliberate sufficiently on the issue of the restructuring of stateEnterprises, or had we become entrenched in our positions before it wasaddresse?

In NEDLAC? Did we try to forum hop or did we respect decisions made in other complementary forums? Why is it that some players such as the retail sector still prefer to boycott meetings of NEDLAC rather than come and engage on whether or not they should buy local or foreign goods?

All social partners need to ensure that engagement at NEDLAC is more consistent. This includes consistent representation, consistent high quality and timely preparations and an ongoing commitment to the principles of social partnership.

NEDLAC however, is not the only national level forum for social dialogue nor should it be or become this. For very good reasons we have set up othernational tripartite bodies such as the CCMA Governing Body, the ECC and CEE to advise me on issues such as minimum wages and employmentequity and the Boards which oversee the Unemployment Insurance and Compensation Funds.

These are specialist bodies set up either to govern, oversee or advise me on specific matters. They all include tripartite representation but some also seek to include other important interests of society.

We need to recognize that a diversity of forms of social partnership exists and is a good thing as they contribute towards strengthening our collective decision making and governance of the labour market.

Social dialogue at a sectoral level

We seem to be developing two or three approaches towards social dialogue at a sectoral level. Firstly, there are bargaining councils which, in the main still regulate collective bargaining and more recently manage dispute resolution.

Secondly, the advent of sector summits which emerged out of the Presidential Job Summit. Last year sector summits were held in the clothing, mining and public sectors. The momentum seems to have been dissipated this year although I believe that there are initiatives pending in communication and automobile manufacturing,

Thirdly, sector forums have been set up to manage the consequences of restructuring. These are evident at Spoornet and the Post Office. A number of challenges confront us at a sectoral level. Firstly, the LRA sought to transform the nature and functions of bargaining councils. This has not happened with the result that too many councils remain unrepresentative and undynamicinstitutions.

Secondly, sectoral collective bargaining can extend beyond wage negotiations. This year saw the signing of a number of two or three year wage agreements including in the metal, motor and mining sectors. This creates an opportunity for councils and sector bargaining forums to focus on other critical issue such as HIV/AIDS, skills, and equity. I sincerely hope that they take up this challenge.

Thirdly, we need to relook at how to ensure effective tripartite sector policy development. At the Presidential Jobs Summit we committed ourselves to

holding sector summits. However, policy development is not a once-off event but a process, Therefore, we need to give more thought to develop more capacity to ensure meaningful and sustainablepre- and post- sector summit processes.

Lastly, we need to engage in sector restructuring initiatives with a higher degree of openness and knowledge. This approach is evident at Spoornet where good progress is being made towards developing consensus between the stakeholders on the restructuring process.

Social dialogue at a local level

I can see many opportunities where our new labour laws have created a conducive environment to make social partnership work, particularly at the level of the workplace.

Our laws encourage and sometimes oblige employer and employees to set up inclusive forums - with employees from all levels in the enterprise - to discuss and draft skills and equity plans.

Over the last few years, the trade union movement has been focusing on rebuilding their local leadership. My colleagues within organized business

face a challenge of building a new and united organization. What better way to build organizations than by getting members involved in local workplaceaction on issues relating to skills, equity and HIV/AIDS?

Conclusion

Chairperson, comrades, ladies and gentlemen, we all say we are committed to social partnership. Sometimes it is more form than content. Let us recommit ourselves in the year ahead to improve the content and quality of this social partnership.

Let us make sure that the taxpayer gets value for money for the salaries paid to those who keep the wheels of our social partnership institutions moving.

In this regard, I would like to thank Phillip Dexter and his team at NEDLAC for their hard work and efforts over the year