CAUSES OF THE
CURRENT STATE OF
THE LABOUR MARKET
Sakhela Buhlungu
University of Pretoria
10 November 2011
FEATURES OF THE LABOUR MARKET
• Unemployment
• Work restructuring
• Labour market flexibility – rhetoric vs reality
• Weak skill development regime
• Limited progress on employment equity
• Legislation & regulation – confusion and weak
enforcement
• Conflict in industrial relations
• Immigration policies and practices not aligned
with labour market policies
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
• Global economic restructuring
• The negotiated political transition
• Legacy of conflict in society & workplace
• ‘Weak’ institutions
• Dilemmas facing trade unions
• Lack of consensus on shape of labour market
• Poor schooling system
• Discrimination in the labour market
• Confusion around immigration issues
GLOBAL ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING
• Market regulation & the ugly face of
globalisation
• The reality of global competition
• Work restructuring – where it hurts the most
• Employment flexibility
• Workplace - the ‘soft underbelly’ which
shows weakness of current representation
model
• Problems of ‘regulated flexibility’
THE NEGOTIATED POLITICAL
TRANSITION
• Our labour market reflects the political
compromise
• Negotiated settlement emphasised
continuity, not rupture
• Assumption that everyone can look
after themselves by forming or using
institutions
LEGACY OF CONFLICT IN
SOCIETY & WORKPLACE
• Legacy of conflict in society still with us in all
spheres
• In workplace & IR the use of power to crush
opponents still a dominant approach
• Management intransigence
• Worker ungovernability (siyayinyova)
• The above are often encouraged/celebrated
‘WEAK’ INSTITUTIONS
• Capacity to act is often constrained
By politics
Lack of competence & insufficient
knowledge
Limited resources
Unclear mandate
Resistance
• Proliferation of weak institutions
DILEMMAS FACING TRADE UNIONS
• Unions strong & weak at same time
• Limited reach & representivity in some sectors
• Limited reach in the workplace (eg.
technology, restructuring, equity)
• The ghost of ungovernability in trade unionism
• Problems of fragmentation
• Organising young & immigrant workers?
LACK OF CONSENSUS ON SHAPE OF
LABOUR MARKET
• Political/‘ideological’ differences among
actors
• Government policy based on ‘lowest
common denominator’
• Differences and government
indecisiveness create gaps for
bypassing/flouting of laws
POOR SCHOOLING SYSTEM
• School education crisis has serious &
long term labour market implications
• Feeds into massive youth
unemployment
• Also affects skills development
initiatives
• Virtually no co-ordination between
departments
DISCRIMINATION IN THE LABOUR
MARKET
• Very limited progress
• Mainly gender, race, rural, disability
• Evidence is there but no meaningful
action by relevant institutions
• Trade unions show similar paralysis on
this
CONFUSION ON IMMIGRATION ISSUES
• A mixture of protectionism and chaos
• Failure to regulate integration of
immigrants in labour market results in
bypassing of laws & undercutting by
employers
• Attacks on foreign workers partly
driven by fear (real or imagined) of
undercutting
SOME CONCLUSIONS 1
• Current state of labour market the result of:
 global forces (that are not all-powerful)
Historical and cultural factors
Choices made (or not made) by actors and
institutions
Capacity of institutions and organisations
Resources available
SOME CONCLUSIONS 2
• Indecisiveness for too long
• The features of labour market
identified require that choices be made
urgently
• There is a need for a comprehensive
approach that connects the issues
• Failing this the labour market will sink
even deeper into a state of paralysis
and chaos