A permanent

Precarious work is becoming the norm as bosses increase their levels of exploitation

It’s mid-morning at a construction site in Rosebank. It is one of several sites in this Johannesburg suburb, where upmarket apartment complexes and square, clinical-looking hotels will soon replace ageing blocks of flats and houses.

Around every corner there are men in blue overalls, climbing vast scaffolding, building and plastering.

It looks like progress, but it illustrates something different — precarious work is becoming the norm. Research indicates that the majority of these workers will not be permanently employed. Work, as we know it, has changed.

The International Labour Organisation, in a study of 180 countries, estimates that in 2015, stable, full-time employment represents fewer than one in four jobs.

In South Africa, between 25% and 50% of workers are estimated not to have permanent contracts. But the trend is global. About 90% of Chinese workers do not have permanent contracts. The organisation’s research also shows that so-called advanced economies, such as the United States and those in Europe, are showing the same trend — standard employment is less likely to be found.

“We’ve been saying this for 15 years,” says Jan Theron from the Institute of Development and Labour Law at the University of Cape Town.

There is no short answer to why permanent work is increasingly scarce but, Theron says, the restructuring of the workplace to the benefit of the top echelons of society has eroded the base of organised labour, the permanent worker.

Decreasing permanent work is part of “externalising accountability” Nathan Borthwick (31) is a high school teacher and grade head at the Holy Family College in Johannesburg. He has been a teacher for 10 years, with brief periods of travelling around Europe in between. He teaches history, social sciences and computer applications technology.

There can be hindrances to job satisfaction in teaching pedagogically, says Borthwick. But overall, it is a secure profession. Those who derive the most satisfaction from the profession are “people who take teaching seriously in terms of unleashing the potential of a child”.

But teaching is also a challenging job because educators are under pressure to produce results.

“You can’t give a child zero. I have to grab them and make them do the for one’s employees, he says.

Johan Visser, general manager at Lenco Construction, oversees a construction site in Johannesburg. In the 1980s, Visser would have employed his own staff, including labourers. Now, he keeps a skeleton staff of 40 or 50 people and outsources the rest.

“We are just lucky to have work,” he says. The construction industry is heaving, work is scarcer for bosses, and increasingly precarious for ordinary workers.

Visser says this is why he, like others, uses subcontractors rather than directly employing workers.

He learned this lesson recently, when work that was expected did not materialise. Carrying the costs of full-time staff when the company had no contracts cost his company R4.5-million in one year.

Subcontractors employ artisans, bricklayers, plasterers, painters and tilers. These workers earn on average a minimum of R120 a day.

But there are subcontractors who pay their workers less, sometimes just R80 a day, in an economy where the transport costs of workers alone can amount to R50 a day.

None of these workers are on fulltime contracts. Subcontractors can recruit them from anywhere.

Visser says his company requires that the subcontractors it uses provide the relevant documentation, including tax certificates and workers’ permits for those who come from outside the country.

But the world of subcontracting is murky, and rules are often broken.

“I know of subbies [subcontractors] who stand outside in the morning, take a thousand bucks out and say to the guys: ‘Divide this among yourselves.’ ”