Bill of Rights provisions breached

GORDON Angus, the industrial relations executive at the Steel and Engineering Federation of South Africa, (“A breakdown of the collective bargaining system will result in chaos”, Business Report, November 24) cites “poverty, inequality, and unemployment” as underlying drivers of the increased militancy and violence in industrial action. He goes on to argue that any challenge to “the provisions in the Labour Relations Act which oblige the labour minister automatically to extend agreements reached between majority parties” (ie Section 32) could result in “serious damage to the country’s economy”.

Like so many labour commentators who defend Section 32 of the Labour Relations Act, he ignores its violation of the human and constitutional rights of the unemployed. The compulsory extension of agreements to non-parties, as provided for in Section 32, means that when the unemployed cannot get a job at the statutory minimum, the law prevents them from offering their labour at a lower price – at which they might be employed – in those parts of the formal sector covered by bargaining councils.

Section 32 breaches several provisions of the Bill of Rights in our constitution; including the rights to freedom of association; to following the trade and occupation of your choice; to fair labour practices; and to human dignity.

With the Section 32 legal disability preventing millions of jobless South Africans from selling their labour, we must expect ongoing poverty, inequality and unemployment. Now that is “serious damage to the country’s economy” and to the nation. Gordon’s article seems not much more than a plea that his employers be left in their comfort zone – regardless of whether intimidation and violence to artificially inflate the wage levels of several hundred thousand lesser-skilled members of organised labour prevails over the fundamental human right of millions of unemployed South Africans to sell their labour as best they can.