Trade unions and the challenge of the informalisation of work

By Edward Webster on January 01, 2006

Abstract:
This book chapter examines trade union strategies of dealing with informalisation of labour in South Africa, by looking at the case of Cosatu, a trade union federation. The paper examines three groups of non-standard workers: subcontracted casual workers, informal workers, and small and micro enterprises. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has successfully regulated the use of outsourced casual labour through collective bargaining. It has introduced clauses that determine the primary employer – that is the mining company – as fully responsible for the casual outsourced workers. It has also been agreed that only registered labour brokers can be used and that the employer must provide a basic coverage of benefits. However, the unions have not been able to do the same in the docks where casualization has been a major problem. Some of the unions organizing dock workers were active in establishing a national dock labour scheme to regulate the use of casual workers. However the scheme was neither influential nor long-lasting. It is speculated that organising the dock workers is made difficult by the fact that there are many unions organizing in the sector.
The paper also discusses the case of self-employed informal workers. Self Employed Women’s Union (SEWU) has been organizing informal workers by advocating for a more inclusive policy environment that would benefit street vendors and home-based workers. The Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA) was established by the NUM to support the formation of rural cooperatives by mineworkers who had lost their jobs. While the MDA has been successful in providing training and financial services to its members, it has not been able to provide access to markets due to rural poverty. One problem has been that the organization has not identified a negotiation partner for its agenda of rural economic development. The author discusses how SEWA and MDA have examples have different ideas about their constituencies. While SEWU identifies its members as workers, MDA identifies them as entrepreneurs. This is then related to a broader discussion about the significance of labour relations for collective organising.

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