Casual workers' raw deal hard for unions to address

THE prevalence of labour brokers who provide temporary workers for the labour market remains a thorn in the side of unions.

THE prevalence of labour brokers who provide temporary workers for the labour market remains a thorn in the side of unions.

At least one union - the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) - struggles to organise in an industry that has a large percentage of casual staff, specifically in call centres, which typically require an around-the-clock, flexible labour component and offer few permanent positions.

Aubrey Tshabalala, provincial secretary for the CWU in Gauteng, said this week perceptions that South Africa's labour market was expensive were incorrect when it was easy for companies to employ casuals cheaply through labour brokers and dismiss them.

According to the Adcorp Employment Index published in July, temporary work accounts for 31.1% of formal-sector employment. Agency work accounts for 25.4% of temporary employment.

Tshabalala said often companies dismissed employees citing the need to become more operationally efficient, "but they employ five people tomorrow, which means they need people".

Tshabalala also said, however, that labour movements had to adapt to embrace the changing environment. "Today you find a 24-hour working environment. It's impossible to get workers at the same place [to congress as a union]."

Compounding this problem is that employment contract conditions discouraged some casuals from joining the union.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week at the annual National Economic Development and Labour Council summit that the National Labour Relations Indaba in November would address root causes of the prevailing hostile labour- relations environment.