The Roman emperor Hadrian built a defensive fortification across Great Britain, regarded by some as the “most important monument buit by the Romans in Britian”.
The SA Communist Party and Cosatu are extending our own “Hadrian’s Wall” as a defensive fortification to protect the interests of trade union members and this needs to crumble, just like the Berlin Wall.
“A SIGNIFICANT divide has developed between SA’s 13-million formally employed workers and the 9-million people unemployed or forced to eke out a vulnerable existence in the informal sector. This divide can be likened to a ‘Hadrian’s Wall’.”
Richard Pike, the CEO of Adcorp Holdings Ltd, is the author of an article in Business Day yesterday – Labour bills will add more bricks to wall against jobless and discussed the great divide that is developing in South Africa.
On one side of the wall are the formally employed with access to:
- Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
- Legal and institutional protections afforded by the LRA, BCEA, EEA, COIDA, OHSA and bargaining councils.
- Collective bargaining.
- Stipulated minimum wages.
- CCMA (Council for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration).
- Labour Courts.
- Social benefits.
- Representation by powerful trade unions.
On the other side of the wall are the 9-million highly vulnerable unemployed or informally employed without any access to labour law or any of the protections and benefits afforded those who are formally employed.
South Africa’s ranking in the latest World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index for 2010- 11:
- Hiring and firing practices – 135 out of 139.
- Flexibility of wage determination – 131 out of 139.
- Pay and productivity – 112 out of 139.
View or download the full article in Business Day by clicking on – Labour bills will add more bricks to wall against jobless .