Documents Smit, Nicola 4 results

"The tragic events at the Marikana mine ( North-West Province, South Africa) in 2012 again underlined the vast inequalities that persist in South African society. Significant income differentials and disparities in quality of life remain pervasive in society, regardless of the fact that the statutory framework addresses unfair discrimination during recruitment, employment and termination. The South African regulatory framework extends beyond the workplace as a result of the Constitution that includes a Bill of Rights, along with generally applicable equality provisions, skills developments legislation, black economic empowerment legislation and sector-specific codes of conduct and charters. Regardless of this vast regulatory system, the achievement of equality or, arguably, a socially just society remains an elusive ideal for many South Africans. This contribution provides a brief overview of the statutory framework for promoting equality and preventing and eliminating unfair discrimination in South African workplaces. The contribution will highlight certain challenges that remain in the area of labour equality laws with regard to conceptual and application issues, and will argue that labour law in itself cannot address the problems facing a highly unequal society such as South Africa. However, where there are other non-discrimination laws and empowering statutes in place, greater emphasis must be placed on the coordination and integration of all relevant statutory instruments and on cultivating fundamental values and rights across the wide spectrum of society."

"The majority of domestic workers in South Africa are (black African) women. As long as women do not have the freedom to make their labour market choices, it cannot be said that they are empowered. Ideally, a move away from vulnerable employment into wage and salaried work would contribute towards the empowerment of women. However, the move from the agricultural sector to the services sector in private households hides the limited nature of women's empowerment. This article examines to what degree domestic workers in South Africa are afforded decent work institutionally. To this end, it considers four main challenges. First, the employment deficit: this means that people cannot find work or business opportunities in the formal economy. Second, the representational deficit: due to being unorganized, informal economy workers are excluded from (or under-represented in) social dialogue institutions and processes. Third, the rights deficit: workers' rights relating to freedom of association, collective bargaining, absence of forced labour, and discrimination are insufficient or non-existent. Fourth, the social protection deficit: clearly even though the workers in the domestic sector and informal economy are most in need of social protection, they are unable to access formal social protection schemes due to membership and contribution issues. It has been argued that when attempting to give meaning to the Decent Work Agenda, one may have regard to four strategic objectives, namely, promoting and realizing standards and fundamental principles and rights at work, creating opportunities for women (and men) to secure decent employment and income, enhancing the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all, and strengthening tripartism and social dialogue. This paper analyses and critically evaluates how these strategic objectives have been pursued with respect to domestic workers and to what extent they have been achieved."

"This article considers the international and regional framework and the (in)flexibility of labour and social regulation, the lack of coordination, and the limited nature of exportability and portability arrangements in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The focus is the social protection available to categories of non-citizen migrant workers in certain countries within the region. The development of a comprehensive social security system in SADC is challenging. Existing social protection measures are limited and unable to address the extreme poverty in the region. High unemployment and ineffective labour laws increase the difficulties in providing adequate protection and decent work to all. Multilateral and bilateral agreements are not commonly utilized. The article will also attempt to consider the way forward for researchers and policy makers alike."