Cosatu has said it would fight tooth and nail to make sure that it protects workers right.
Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks told ‘The Star’ on Wednesday that they have registered their complaints with the ANC, adding that the party had promised them that the Government Of National Unity (GNU) would not make changes to the current labour laws.
“Cosatu has raised its concerns with regards to the DA’s elections proposals to scrap the minimum wage and our labours. Cosatu will never allow any such attack on workers’ hard-won rights to succeed.
“We’ve received our concerns with the leadership of the ANC and it has assured us it will not allow this to happen,” Parks added.
He said the assurance the federation got in safeguarding the workers’ rights was included in the GNU declaration as a result.
Parks said the DA would not be able to do anything as it remained a 21% not a 51% party, thus it would not be able to scrap the labour laws.
However, according to the DA’s federal chairperson, Helen Zille, the GNU document emphasised that the ANC won’t be able to pass any decision without DA support.
Zille said for the party to be able to pass the bill there was be a sufficient consensus, which required 60% of parties to agree, which would mean there won’t be a decision taken without the “blessing” of the DA.
However, Parks was adamant that the ANC has invited a variety of parties to join GNU, and that included the DA, emphasising that it did not have a veto power in it.
DA labour spokesperson Michael Bagraim said the current labour laws needed to be overhauled in order for government to be able to create jobs.
“Under the ANC government, a centralised approach to job creation was taken. Although this worked for a few years, we started to see the collapse of the system about 20 years ago. The structured control was not conducive to real job creation And government became bloated by employing more and more unqualified civil servants.
“This was not productive at all and has created a civil service which is earning more than the private sector and producing less. Common knowledge tells us that it is the private sector that heads jobs and these jobs are functional to both the fiscus and economy.
“The approach taken by the Western Cape province government has been to encourage the private sector to employ more people And produce more goods,” Bagraim said.
He said the approach, although slow, has shown fantastic growth and that the unemployment in the Western Cape has been brought down to below 20%, as opposed to a national unemployment figure of 40%.
The DA’s labour expert said the structured experiment in the Western Cape has produced results, and needs to be followed and implemented across the country.
On the question of whether the federation would attend the inauguration, Parks said Cosatu had been invited to attend and that it had sent a delegation to represent it.
“The government of national unity has been established under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC, the largest political party nationwide.”
The Star