SA – Ten-point reform plan out of the unemployment crisis

The SA Institute of Race Relations (IRR) published a 10-point plan on Wednesday to tackle South Africa’s mounting unemployment crisis.

The IRR said that South Africa’s very high unemployment, which had risen from 3.67 million in 1994 to 8.74 million this year, necessitated a series of radical steps.

“Job security for some has been achieved at the price of unemployment for others who might have benefited from a more adaptable and flexible regulatory environment,” the IRR said in a statement.

“Joblessness on the scale currently prevalent in South Africa represents a colossal loss in economic output.”

The IRR added that its proposals were designed to “curtail violence, replace coercion with democracy, lower barriers to market entry, and remove obstacles to the engagement of workers”.

Unskilled people without education or capital had nothing to sell but their labour and all the artificial restrictions – such as minimum wages – preventing them from exploiting their only asset should be removed, in the IRR’s view.

Dr Anthea Jeffery, head of policy research at the IRR, explained ten labour market reform points of the suggested IRR plan to Fin24:

1. End strike-related violence
2. Require secret pre-strike ballots
3. Protect property during strikes and pickets
4. Limit the scope of protected strikes and pickets
5. End the closed shop and make unions collect their own subscriptions
6. Stop extending bargaining council agreements to non-parties
7. Give people back their right to work
8. Allow dismissals and retrenchments to be governed by employment contracts
9. Remove new restrictions on temporary labour
10. Stop fighting the private sector

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Ten-point reform plan for unemployment crisis | Fin24.