April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

zivakashile ezilwela ubulungiswa besimo sezulu, oza kungcono kulaba
bazobe behlangene kwingqungquthela yeUN Conference of Polluters
(COP17).Imibiko esabalele mayelana nenkohlakalo kanye nokuphathwa
ngobudedengu kwezimali yizikhulu zikamasipala weTheku, ubuhixhixi
kwimibiko ngezikhungo zemfundo ephakeme njengeUKZN, nokuteleka
kwabanfundi ngokungabikhona ngokwanele kwezimali zokubaxhasa
eDurban University of Technology kobe sekwehlile. Kodwa abantu abaningi
bayokhumbula izimo ezazibenze ukuthi baze bawuchithe umbuso
wengcindezi njengoba kwakungacatshngwa ukuthi kungenzeka, njengoba
kwenzeke eNtshonalanga Afrika, kohlala kukhona.
Kusukela ekuvukelweni kwemibuso eNtshonalanga Afrika kuya kumbuthano
weWSF eMpumalanga Afrika, ezinye izingxenye zalelizwekazi imiphakathi
yazo kuzofanele ifunde akukona-nje ukudakwa kwezinkulumo
ezimbaxambili ezizobakhulula, kodwa ukubekezela ukuthi bangazikholelwa
lezizinkulumo. Ngaphambi kkuthi kuhlangatshezwe imigomo ethile: intando
yeningi kanye nemigomo ehambisana nentando yening.
(UPatrick Bond unguSolwazi ozinze eUKZN’s Centre for Civil Society.)
Casualisation and 'flexibility': an analysis
LibCom 15 February 2010
An overview of the casualisation of work, and some of the broader
implications of the forced “flexibilisation” of the labour market.
Casualisation not only leads to lower wages and benefits, but also
increases the ratio of unpaid to paid labour, and the intensity of work. It is
a process where a dual labour market develops, stratified and mutually
isolated: a core of permanent workers with a periphery of workers on
fixed-term contracts, or contracted as self-employed individuals.
Any discussion of this must start with how workers subjectively experience
the process. The workers who are at the sharp end are almost entirely
atomised, forced to use agencies as mediators between themselves and
the employer. The assignments are variable in length, but generally grant
less that a days notice before the work finishes, the worker either
returning to unemployment, or being sent to another workplace. This is an
effective barrier to the development of solidarity with other workers, and
frustrates workplace organising.
The agency receives a portion of each hours work, leaving the worker
doubly exploited, with two sets of parasites extracting value. Temps don't
qualify for the most basic of benefits: maternity pay, sick pay and pensions
are all denied. As a result of EU temp-work legislation, agencies were
forced to extend rudimentary benefits to their workers, like holiday pay.
However, this was originally largely a PR exercise. What happened in
reality was an incorporation of holiday pay into the hourly rate that a
worker received, a paper exercise in shuffling numbers around, until
further EU legislation outlawed this practice as well, so employers then cut
temp workers' hourly pay back to below its previous level. Capital seems to
have brought about 'just-in-time' employment to go with its 'just-in-time'
production.
Low-skilled and manual jobs have become almost totally the preserve of
the agency, and here “flexible” results in dangerous work often being