3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item An evaluation of the alignment of the Gauteng Youth employment strategy(2018) Nkomonde, Lindokuhle SiyabongaWhen developing policies or policy programmes, the South African Government often refers to public participation as an important part of the process. However, public participation in policy making in the country has often been described as inadequate and creating a false perception of public participation. This is because oftentimes policy makers think the objective data they have is sufficient for adopting policy positions and regard subjective evidence (people’s own thoughts and perceptions) as superfluous. The challenge created by implementing policies that are not in line with people’s thoughts and perceptions is that governments roll out policies that are not responsive to the needs of its intended beneficiaries, while they also create a possibility for non-participation, at the least, or opposition to the policy or programme by the public at the worst. This study sought to understand how sensitive the Gauteng Youth Employment Strategy (GYES), as a developmental policy, is to the Gauteng youth’s own perceptions of the social environment and their own circumstances. It did this by juxtaposing the aims of the GYES vis-à-vis the expectations of unemployed Gauteng youth; the assumptions underlying the GYES vis-à-vis the perceptions and expectations of the unemployed youth; as well as obtaining insights – for purposes of improving the GYES’ responsiveness – on unemployed Gauteng youth’s perceptions of socio-economic trends in South Africa and how they should be addressed. Because there seems to have been no considerable effort to understand the subjective views of the unemployed youth of Gauteng in the formulation of the GYES, the policy programme is shown to be misaligned with their expectations on a number of matters of significance. So while the programme set out to address a real need or problem, a lack of insights which can only be gained from considering subjective views, means that some of the programme interventions stand little chance of being implemented successfully. As such, the study demonstrates that important insights can be gained by considering subjective measures and views from the public in policy formulation.Item Language and labour markets in South Africa(2018) Zwane, Ubusiso KagisoThis report investigates the relationship between language proficiency, formal and informal employment and earnings within the employment types. Using a sample of working age African men in the first wave of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) to determine whether language proficiency is associated with the probability of finding employment, the study finds that English language proficiency does not have a significant association on the probability, but that African home language proficiency has a significant association with the probability of formal employment. While the study finds that African men who are English proficient are likely to earn more than those who are not, this relationship does not hold when analysis is restricted to the formal and informal labour markets. This is likely because of selection effects, that are not controlled for in this study. The contribution of this research is expanding the understanding of the role language plays in labour markets to include how it may affect the kind of employment that one may find.Item Precarious workers, their power and the ways to realise it: the struggle of Heineken labour broker workers(2017) Englert, ThomasThe dissertation examines the power of precarious workers through the analysis of the campaign of labour brokered workers to be made permanent under equal conditions at Heineken Brewery in Sedibeng, South of Johannesburg. It contributes to the discussion on the growing importance of precarious work in the formal sector in South Africa through externalisation and the effect thereof on the labour movement and the institutions of labour relations. It examines how precarious workers rely on self organisation to mobilise power resources to disrupt the status quo. Taking an engaged approach, the work relies on workplace mapping to co-construct, with workers and organisers, an understanding of how different employers, working conditions and status are used to divide workers and fragment the workplace to enforce low labour costs and control at the Sedibeng Brewery. The map also emphasizes the central role these workers play in the production process. The dissertation then describes how the workers use the law – institutional power –, in particular the amended section 198 of the LRA to try and overcome their divisions. They do so with the help of the Casual Workers Advice Office, a labour NGO. The chapter emphasises the law as a terrain of contestation by showing that this approach is not without problems. In the final chapter, the interdependence of associational, institutional, societal and structural power underlines that the precarious workers at Heineken relied on power resources located outside the shopfloor to start mounting an effective challenge to the workplace order inside the brewery. The dissertation concludes that contrary to the often expressed view, at least in this case study, precarious workers do organise but that they do so outside of the established unions, a phenomenon that is understudied. Although the struggle of these workers is very much about integration, it connects with deeper narratives and struggles against inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. Finally, the case study raises the question of how these dynamics could affect the traditional model of industrial unionism in the future: revitalise or transform it.Item Precarious workers, the casual workers' advice office and the 2014 labour relations act amendments(2017) Lenka, LefaThe contemporary precariousness of workers in South Africa can be understood from the historical development of South African labour regulations and policies. The acceleration of globalisation in the 1970s and the 1980s posed the labour movement with a challenge of flexible labour that rendered many workers precarious. Labour broking/Temporary Employment Services, part-time and contract work became the central strategy of capital rejuvenating itself and to avoid costs and legislation. This forced workers to engage in other forms of struggles to fight their precarious status as they found themselves on the periphery of the labour movement and legislative protection. In 2012 the government introduced the Labour Relations Bill that came to take effect in 2015 as the Labour Relations Act Amendment of 2014 to protect these groups of workers against the super-exploitative practices of flexible labour. This thesis explores the struggles of precarious workers at (and the role of) the Casual Workers’ Advice Office (CWAO) and self-organisation of workers in contemporary South Africa following the 2014 Labour Relations Amendments Act. The dissertation provides cases and notes struggles of workers at CWAO who sought to access their rights in terms of the LRA Amendments of 2014. It argues that the pursuit of legal struggles of various forms of precarious workers - TES, part-time and contract workers was important, but central to their victories was their own self-organisation, labour education and the role CWAO and David Cartwright Attorneys played in their struggles.