In a week which was marked by mass action, the Department of Labour has announced that the economy is continuing to suffer due strike action, having lost a total of\u00a0946,323 working days as a result of 122 work stoppages in 2016.<\/p>\n
According to the department’s acting director general,\u00a0Vuyo Mafata, this equates to a\u00a04.7% increase in working days lost in 2016 compared to 903,921 days in 2015.<\/p>\n
Mafata said most of the work stoppages were due to wage, bonus and other compensation demands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn term of wages lost, the South African labour economy lost approximately R161 million due to work stoppages in 2016 compared to R116 million in 2015,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mafata said the strike information analysed is based on the information supplied by employers in the Labour Relations Act (LRA) forms after strike incidents ended in workplaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strike report remains a useful piece of up-to-date information for various stakeholders including government departments, unions, employers, business, international organisations, research institutes, NGOs and students.<\/p>\n
The report provides a detailed account of companies affected by work stoppages and disaggregates information by province, duration, industries, nature and reasons of strikes.<\/p>\n
Mafata said the report still emphasises the Labour Minister\u2019s concerns around the logic of pursuing strike action to the point where it damages workers\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither way, South Africa needs to find a solution for the seemingly faltering bargaining structure. Government, unions and business have an important role to play to maintain a stable labour force and fair labour practices that will attract investors and inspire economic growth in the long run,\u201d Mafata said.<\/p>\n
Report highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n More work stoppages were experienced during \u201cstrike season\u201d, which is the second and third quarters of the year, the report showed.<\/p>\n By nature of strikes, \u201cstrikes in-company only\u201d were predominantly higher, contributing to 56% of strikes which took place in 2016. This was followed by those workers who were locked-out at 26%. Most of these work stoppages were due to wage, bonus and other compensation demands.<\/p>\n This equates to a\u00a0time-loss ratio of 59 working days lost per 1,000 employees, while a total of 7.6 million working hours were lost in 2016 compared to a total 8.2 million in 2015.<\/p>\n Of the nine provinces in the country, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with relatively high performance economic activities, had experienced more strikes in all the four quarters of 2016.<\/p>\n By industry, the community industry was highly affected by strike incidents, followed by the manufacturing and transport industries in 2016.<\/p>\n Establishments with more than 1,000 employees were mostly affected by industrial action during quarter two and three of 2016 at 41 and 40% respectively.<\/p>\n As reported by the Labour Research Services, the median wage settlement from various industries in 2016 was close to 8% compared to 7.4% in 2015.<\/p>\n
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