Introduction
The factors that impinge on all labour
relations in South Africa are categorized into macro environmental influences
and micro environmental influences as well as the environmental influences
stated in the open systems framework developed by Craig (1975) which include
economic, legal, political and social factors according to Finnemore and van
Rensburg (2002: p. 17, p. 41-66). The following discussion and analysis will
focus on the relevant factors of each of these influences relating to 3
articles sourced from the Mail and Guardian’s webpage. The first article
focuses on President Jacob Zuma adopting a new focus on the South African infrastructure,
similar to the Chinese model of state capitalism. The second focuses on Brent
crude oil hitting the highest point in eight months, and the last article will
focus on the labour law amendments aiming to end the exploitation of workers
and governing employment. The amendments to labour law introduce laws to
regulate contract work, address labour broking and prohibit abusive practices.
Article #1
“State of the Nation: Zuma adopts Chinese
model”
President Jacob Zuma proposed his plan to
adopt a new focus on infrastructure, similar to the Chinese model of state
capitalism, during his State of the Nation address in Cape Town earlier this
year. The outcomes of this programme include investing more state funds into
state owned enterprises (SOE’s) like Eskom, Transnet, Sasol, Arcelor Mittal
South Africa and Passenger Rail Association of South Africa as well as to take
these parastatals and place them under one department in order to ensure
tighter control of strategic assets in the economy to comply with the
government's new growth path target of five-million jobs by 2020. An estimate
of R1-trillion will be invested in the state capitalist programme. This will
also imply that the government will take on a more activist role in the
economy. The entire concept of state capitalism has investors and the private
sector worrying, even worrying more than with the previous plan of nationalism
by the state, and with good reason. According to Lubman (2012), the Chinese
infrastructure is very complex and too often vaguely defined. He also notes
that according to a recent paper by Curtis Milhaupt of Columbia Law School and
Li-Wen Lin of Columbia University, titled the “black box”, the Chinese state
capitalist model has some very concerning implications. According to the “black
box” paper and a recent overview noted in the Economist, Chinese government
enforce rules selectively in order to restrict and control all private-sector
rivals as well as to block foreign investors from acquiring locally owned
firms. Another serious implication is shareholders’ control or rather lack of
control in SOE’s. An apparent lack of corporate transparency means that
corporate misgovernment and corruption go unnoticed and do not allow for
public, media or shareholder scrutiny.
How would our South African economy,
according to a state capitalist model, run?
How, according to an open systems
framework, would a state capitalist economy influence the parties involved, the
structures, processes and outcomes of conflict resolutions, and the feed back
of these outcomes into the environmental influences?
Firstly our South African economy and some
macro environmental influences would be affected by the new system. In an
extreme assumption even some parts of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa, particularly the Bill of Rights section 32 - Access to information,
would have to be altered to make way for a state capitalist economy. Other
factors influenced would include government economic policies and the role of
the media. Secondly this leads to a deduction as to why the Bill of Information
would be tabled in Parliament. But all suspicions aside, a state capitalist
system has both negative as well as positive aspects to it, such as job creation
and economic development.
Focusing on the parties involved in an open
systems framework, government, employees and employers would have to adopt new
goals or form new ways of attaining those goals. For example, government would
now have to play a more active role in the economy and this would involve
competing fairly with privately owned enterprises. The government would shift
from being a political and legal factor to being a competitor to the private
sector which would be a direct influence on private sector employers and would
create new challenges to those employers. Structures, processes and outcomes of
conflict resolutions would thus also be influenced in a more subjective way
because the state would then have to be inclined to resolve disputes or matters
independently and objectively, removing itself from an autonomous, legislative
platform to one that would ensure impartial outcomes for all parties involved,
in order to achieve results of a democratic nature. This would seem nearly
impossible in a state capitalist governed economy.
The question remains whether a system like
state capitalism would truly succeed in a democratic country like South Africa,
or whether it would suffocate democracy and independence all together.
Article #2
“Oil price on a high”
The price increases of Brent crude oil will
always have major implications on any country’s economic challenges, which
means that sub-factors like inflation, economic growth and productivity and
wages according to Finnemore and van Rensburg (2002: p. 51-54) will affect
companies and employees overall as these factors exercise disruptions on these parties. Other macro
environmental influences affected by the oil price are demographics,
technological transformation and globalisation. In reference to demographics,
South Africa’s unemployment rate would only worsen as job creation would
decrease and job losses increase; in order to keep productivity costs low and
because of a rise in oil price which would have a direct effect on the costs of
productivity. Technological transformation would also be disrupted as
companies’ focuses would move away from investing in technology and move onto
the economic challenges of the rising oil price. This in turn, creates a lag between
companies in developed countries and companies in developing countries and the
lag would directly affect globalisation.
New conflicts between employers and
employees would arise, as it does every time inflation rates go up in South
Africa, concerning wage increases. These conflicts normally lead to strikes and
decreased productivity levels. Strikes could have an impact on occupational
safety, especially to those employees not belonging to unions and not actively
participating in negotiations. According to Finnemore and van Rensburg (2002:
p. 65-66), the media has a major influence on how the public perceives strikes
and unions making them out to be plagues and threats, crippling service
delivery and economic growth while at the same time creating the perception
that companies and employers are the more legitimate and righteous party in
such negotiations.
Considering all of the above mentioned
views expressed, one could conclude that cultural diversity at the workplace
would be influenced. Different cultural backgrounds, religions and existing
barriers would cause people to interpret factors like inflation, globalisation,
conflicts, and economic challenges, caused by high oil prices, differently.
Article #3
“Rushed labour Bills under fire”
Recent amendments to labour laws have been
strongly criticised by employers of the private sector, with main concerns
highlighting that it would affect productivity levels, productivity costs and
job creation in the private sector negatively.
Reasons for these arguments mainly focus on
laws stating that temporary workers should be employed on a fixed contract
after a period of 6 months. This would hamper employers’ flexibility and lead
to temporary staff being retrenched and new employees rehired after every 6
months. The amendments relating to negotiations and strikes also raise concerns
as people and property are not protected sufficiently against these industrial
actions. Changes procedures of unfair dismissal will also disrupt and delay
employers’ abilities to adapt and adjust to changing market conditions.
The issues stressed above are influences in
the macro as well as micro environment of labour relations. Economic challenges
such as economic growth, job creation, productivity and wages are the main
influences that will create new challenges for employers if the Bills are
passed by Parliament. This also insinuates that political and legal factors are
influencing labour relations since these changes are introduced as new
legislation.
These legislative actions would impact
globalisation and competitiveness in the global market for South African
enterprises if their ability and pace to adapt and adjust to changes in the
market place are delayed.
Conclusion
The macro and micro influences’ impacts, as
well as the environmental factors’, stated in the open systems framework,
effects become clearly visible in the analysis of the three articles discussed.
The roles of different factors discussed clearly have a lot of influential
power on labour relations as things like inflation and economic growth are
directly impacted by the current oil price. One can also note that the amount
of influence a country’s state possesses can have either beneficial
opportunities or detrimental challenges to employers, investors and employees.
The influences of a state can be determined by the type of governing style of a
country’s economy; whether it is a state capitalist as opposed to market
capitalist system. Situations are neatly summarized by considering the impacts
of relevant factors from an industrial relations perspective.
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