African Studies Institute - Seminar Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/7319

For information on accessing African Studies Institute - Seminar Papers collection content please contact Peter Duncan via email : peter.duncan@wits.ac.za

Browse

Filters

1974 - 197911980 - 19821

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Labor market. South Africa

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A study in the dual labour market of a South African plant
    (1974-07) Spandau, Arnt
    Legal and customary barriers of racial employment patterns prevent South African companies from optimizing labour input relationships. The result of these barriers is imperfections in the internal labour market which manifest themselves as follows : i) The marginal rates of substitution of White for Black workers do not equal the ratios of the wage rates of the two factors; (ii) Relative to their occupational abilities, Whites are overrepresented in high-graded jobs, while Blacks are overrepresented in low-graded jobs. During the process of the growth of the firms, there are certain intermediate occupations where the replacement of Whites by Blacks does actually take place. This process of replacement has certain elements of inertia. Abrupt and visible changes would be looked upon as being contrary to the ‘South African way of life’ (1). In the past, Black occupational advance in South African manufacturing industries was cut off, by and large, at the level of operative machine minding. During recent years, Blacks have also advanced into certain clerical, sales, supervisory and control positions. With large employers of Blacks, clerical personnel administration' for Non-Whites is largely nowadays done by Blacks themselves. (iii) In the intermediate occupations, Whites tend to be paid wages in excess of their marginal value product, and Blacks below. Racial pay discrimination also percolates into the areas of fringe benefits, such as health protection, annual leave, and into every-day communication. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the factors which prevent the attainment of equilibrium in the labour markets under conditions of South African- racial discrimination. The data were collected during the months October and November, 1972, when the writer spent some weeks on the premises of a bottling plant in the Transvaal. (2) In order to preserve the anonymity of those who freely supplied information - managers, workers, and informed outsiders - the plant in question will be called Company X.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Labour market segmentation in South Africa
    (1982-03-29) Cassim, Fuad
    This paper questions the applicability of neoclassical theory to the South African labour market and it adopts an alternative approach, namely, segmented labour market theory. Segmented labour market (SLM) theory has emerged only recently as an alternative to neoclassical analysis of wage determination. Drawing on this approach it will be shown that a model of racial dualism provides a better explanatory framework and generates greater insight into the issues of poverty and discrimination confronting the South African labour market. Moreover, viewing the labour market within this analytical perspective sheds some light on the inadequacies and failure of recent state policy. The paper begins with an analysis of the structure of labour markets in particular, and the concepts of the internal labour market (ILM), the dual labour market (DLM), and labour market segmentation in general. This is followed by an analysis of labour markets in South Africa. Though lack of adequate data poses a problem in so far as testing of the theory is concerned, the broad tendencies within the South African labour market indicate that the DLM approach can provide a useful basis to analyse the problems of low pay and income distribution. Finally, useful policy implications flow from this analysis.