Numsa: Workers face apartheid-like laws

24 April 2013 - 02:56 By AMUKELANI CHAUKE
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Numsa's Irvin Jim. File photo.
Numsa's Irvin Jim. File photo.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said the National Development Plan, formulated by Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel, will take the country back to apartheid because of its labour policy proposals.

The union's general secretary, Irvin Jim, called on the ANC to adopt the Freedom Charter as government policy, not the National Development Plan.

Jim said one of the National Development Plan's proposals was to increase employees' probation period from three months to six months. Jim said this would give "monopoly capital" the freedom to hire and fire workers as it pleased, while workers would have little recourse.

"Towards Mangaung, we smiled a bit. The ANC called on all South Africans to debate, and we did debate and made our submissions, which were not considered.

"We can't whisper the fact that this thing wants now to regulate labour brokers instead of banning them.

"If you allow capital a six-month probation period, during which it is free to dismiss, it takes us [back] to the dark days of apartheid. The basic rights of workers in the Labour Relations Act are then taken away," he said.

The union also rejected the proposal to privatise state-owned entities like Eskom and Transnet.

Asked if this was a sound call, given that the public service was riddled with corruption, Numsa president Cedric Gina said: "I think that it is a little bit unfair that the media tends to want to use corruption as a defence of companies that must be nationalised. Not all ministers are Dina Pule."

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