ETD Collection

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    Analysing the impact of collective bargaining in an industry where workers have low bargaining power: case study of the KZN contract cleaning industry
    (2017) Hlangoti, Nobuhle Dambile
    The aim of this research report is to investigate the impact of collective bargaining in an industry where workers have low bargaining power. It seeks to understand what collective bargaining has been able to achieve for workers in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) contract cleaning industry. Contract cleaning is one of the most precarious and poorly organised sectors in South Africa. Scholars contend that contract cleaning has re-introduced one of the many aspects that characterised the apartheid workplace. In investigating how collective bargaining has impacted contract cleaners and their view of the labour relationship, the history of the industrial relations system and the mechanisms that regulate the contract cleaning sector (sectoral determination and collective bargaining) are considered. Debates surrounding the usefulness of collective bargaining in the current industrial relations system and the operation of this mechanism in a triangular employment relationship are discussed. Though references are made to the sectoral determination for contract cleaning, the focus of the research report is on collective bargaining. The data for this research was collected using both primary and secondary sources. In relation to the former, interviews were conducted with officials of the bargaining council and trade unions. Interviews were also conducted with workers in the KZN contract cleaning industry. In relation to the latter, documentary data that was relevant to the research topic, such as the KZN contract cleaning main agreement, the Decent Work Programme and legislation, was examined. The findings of this study demonstrate that workers in the KZN contract cleaning industry lack voice and cannot have meaningful inputs in the workplace. A representation gap exists that is exacerbated by the division between unions. The implications of this situation are that wages are lower than those prescribed by the sectoral determination, the non-compliance of firms becomes a prevalent issue and strike action becomes inefficient. With the continuous labour unrest in the current industrial relations system in South Africa it is apparent that the current labour legislation has not able to protect precarious workers found in new forms of employment
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    Manufacturing consent: an analysis of reporting on motor collective bargaining in the financial media
    (2016-07-27) Hlungwani, Sandra Sibongile
    Collective bargaining is one of the contested spaces of trade union life. How it is reported in the media is of paramount importance to trade unions, such as the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and its parent federation the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). When collective bargaining happens in a globalised space the situation becomes complex as local realities are affected by what happens thousands of miles across the globe. However, as the politics of media representation are tilted against trade unions, this study investigated how the reporting in the media impacts on collective bargaining. The study argues that media organisations do not only produce news but also ‘manufacture consent,’ a concept developed by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988); in the way they construct social realities. Media routines and journalistic practices have a bearing on what eventually gets published in newspapers and magazines. The media selects information that prefers certain ideologies over others whilst privileging voices of the powerful over those of the marginalised in society. The media also becomes an arena where workers’ associational power clashes with that of capital: trade union voices versus those of business. In South Africa working class voices are taken less seriously than elite voices especially in the financial media. To fully comprehend the issues, the study employs Critical Discourse Analysis and uses Fairclough’s (1995) three dimensions model to analyse reports on collective bargaining that were published in the Financial Mail and Business Day in 2010 and 2013. Straddling the fields of media studies and industrial relations, the study uses qualitative methods that include in-depth interviews with key media, union, and employer organisations; thematic content analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis for Business Day and Financial Mail stories; and the extended case method to cater for individual experiences