Solidarity and government officially in dispute over job losses

Solidarity and the government are now officially in a dispute over the wave of retrenchments hitting the country. This follows the failure of a mediation process at NEDLAC. NEDLAC will issue a certificate confirming this within two weeks.

Solidarity says it will release new information within days about hundreds of thousands of jobs that could be lost before Christmas. Solidarity is also planning several protests to highlight the seriousness of the problem.

The second round of the mediation process was attended by employers such as Columbus Steel, Ferroglobe, Trans Alloys, Samancor, MMC Nelspruit and Glencore. The Minerals Council and BUSA also sent representatives to the mediation.

FAPA, the Ferro Alloy Producers Association, made a presentation that contained shocking figures about retrenchments.

Due to the mediation protocol, the content of the discussions may not be disclosed.

This follows a dispute declared by Solidarity against the South African government, in terms of section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, regarding the wave of retrenchments earlier this year.

“Solidarity hoped that progress could be made through discussion. If this does not happen, there will be another work bloodbath before Christmas. One of Solidarity’s demands was that a multi-departmental team be formed to address the different elements of the crisis. However, the government did not show urgency and was not prepared to hold further discussions,” said Dr Dirk Hermann, Chief Executive of Solidarity.

According to Solidarity, a central theme in recent company retrenchment notices is government failure. These failures include issues with rail, road and port infrastructure, electricity pricing structures, issues with policy, overregulation, the cost of BEE and, more recently, the impact of America’s tariff regime.

After the previous mediation talks between Solidarity and the government, it was decided that large businesses implicated in Solidarity’s submissions would also be invited to the mediation.