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Labour law and non-standard employment: case studies of selected workplaces in Makhanda

  • Authors: Mini, Sifanelwa
  • Date: 2023-10-13
  • Subjects: Non-standard employment South Africa Makhanda , Job security , Labor market South Africa , Labor laws and legislation South Africa , Work-life balance South Africa , Temporary employment South Africa , Collective bargaining South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425171 , vital:72216
  • Description: While precarious and poorly-regulated forms of employment are on the increase worldwide, the patterns vary significantly over time and space. This study sought to understand employees’ perceptions of non-standard employment (NSE), the reasons why employers resort to NSE and why they use particular types of NSE. In addition, the research explored how labour law protections for NSE are applied in particular workplaces. Drawing on the regulation approach, which provides a conceptual framework to explain changes in production and employment relationships under specific spatio-temporal conditions, this study focused on three companies in Makhanda. Furthermore, this study employed a qualitative research method to explore the employees’ perceptions on non-standard work. This was done by using an interpretive approach to explore how workers experience NSE and how Eastern Cape citizens in Makhanda navigate the scourge of unemployment and exploitation in the labour market. Moreover, the research investigated how employees experience the efficacy of their employment rights in the workplace. The employment rights observed in the study include (among others) leave, contract of employment and collective bargaining; all of which are provisions in the Labour Relations Act. The findings in the study do validate the use of NSE as a ‘tool’ to curb high unemployment. However, the study finds that the positive result of job creation does not signify job security for non-standard workers, instead beneath the rhetoric of job creation and investment, lies hidden the exploitation of vulnerable groups of citizens and extension of precarious forms of employment. This is because businesses engage in economic competition locally and globally. Therefore, in order to successfully compete against other, employer’s cut on labour expenses by adopting a “race to the bottom,” the effect of which is paying employees below the minimum wage. Moreover, this study opposes the argument that NSE is a stepping stone to permanent employment. The conditions which prevail in NSE are distinctly different from those in the Standard Employment Relationship (SER), making it difficult for employees to transition to a new labour market. The latter is more aligned with the heterodox approach than it is to the orthodox approach to labour market. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2023
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  • Date Issued: 2023-10-13

Demand-side factors and the employment of young people: A case study of the recruitment and selection strategies of selected firms in Johannesburg

  • Authors: Gabobegwe, Maoshadi Keletso Amanda
  • Date: 2022-10-14
  • Subjects: Unemployment South Africa , Underemployment South Africa , Unemployed youth South Africa , Labor market South Africa , Employees Recruiting South Africa , Employer attitude surveys South Africa , International Labour Organisation
  • Language: English
  • Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/327294 , vital:61101 , DOI 10.21504/10962/327294
  • Description: Unemployment is a long-standing and pressing socio-economic phenomenon that affects, markedly, both developed and developing countries. Although, in one way or another, many people are affected by unemployment, the reviewed literature concurs that youth unemployment is a critical component of the overall unemployment challenge. Indeed, the burden of unemployment is borne, tremendously, by young people, especially those who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEETs). The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has declared youth unemployment a global crisis, with approximately 67,6 million unemployed young people worldwide in 2018. In South Africa, the youth unemployment rate escalated to 56.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2019. This disturbing level of unemployment among young people poses a serious threat—for as long as young people stay unemployed. Indeed, the cost of unemployment is too high, not only does it engender discontent among young people who are floundering in poverty and frustration, but it can also trigger or perpetuate all sorts of social, political, and economic effects. These effects only exacerbate the already intricate and onerous global agenda of tackling unemployment— because they give rise to other socio-economic ills (e.g., crime, among others) that also need to be addressed. Owing to this grave and perpetual challenge of unemployment, exploring and understanding the dynamics of youth unemployment continues to be of paramount importance worldwide. This thesis, in particular, seeks to investigate the factors that impede on the employment of the NEETs category, as it may be extremely difficult for them to enter the labour market— and they may lose hope of entering the labour market later in life, if they are unsuccessful while still young. Unlike graduates or other youth categories (i.e., matriculants) who have better chances in the labour market, some young people (by virtue of being ‘dropouts’, teenage moms/dads, having failed matric, among other reasons), remain the most vulnerable to unemployment. For this reason, the primary aim of this thesis is to examine the ways in which employers’ recruitment strategies advantage or disadvantage young people (NEETs). The secondary aims include: (a) examining how employers' perceptions and attitudes, regarding the NEETs youths, influence their recruitment decisions when it comes to employing young people; and (b) understanding the ways in which government strategies (devised to combat youth unemployment) influence employers’ decisions to recruit the youths’ or not. In essence, this study seeks to explore the demand-side factors in the labour market that can help us understand how employers’ recruitment decisions (or recruitment behaviour) affect the employment prospects of young people in the labour market. The focus on demand-side factors is motivated by Labour Market Segmentation (LMS) theories, which serve as the theoretical framework of this thesis. LMS theories’ significance lies in their opposition to neoclassical economics, that posit the existence of a unified labour market (which operates like all other markets), consisting of buyers and sellers in ‘free’ competition. According to neoclassical theory, the difference between workers’ employment and wages is determined by ‘individual preferences’ and investments in ‘human capital’ (skills, experience, formal education, etc.). By contrast, LMS theorists argue that labour markets are fragmented, and that differences on the demand side imply differences in compensations that are not totally determined by individual workers' human capital. Inspired by the claims of LMS theories, this study elected to explore demand-side factors by applying qualitative research methods and techniques to gather and analyse the data gathered, and to ultimately address the research objectives. In particular, non-probability sampling was used to sample 20 firms from four sectors (manufacturing, retail/hospitality, finance, transportation) in the Johannesburg (CBD) region. The respondents were all asked a series of semi-structured questions in order to yield qualitative results that would help determine the employers’ dispositions towards young people; and about the government’s strategies that address youth unemployment. The aim is to provide an in-depth, nuanced understanding of how the respondents’ dispositions influence the inclusion or exclusion of young people in the employers’ recruitment considerations. The aggregate results of the study generally indicate that—although there are innumerable factors that affect young peoples' employment prospects—young people (without skills and tertiary education or matric) are actually being employed, and are still being considered for employment by the majority of the sampled employers (predominantly from retail/hospitality firms). Only a minority of employers stated, categorically, that they do not employ young people, and do not intend to do so. Conversely, the results also reveal that the the majority of employers often recruit young people for general and entry-level jobs that are often offered on a non-standard employment basis. At face value, the employment of young people (without skills) in the majority of the sampled firms may seem to make a difference—and it probably does, for as long as young people are exposed to the world of work. However, in the 4 grand scheme of things, the kind of employment offered in these firms is also problematic, because it is, basically, transient and unsustainable. As such, the young people that occupy these jobs are most likely to find themselves back in the unemployment queues whenever the ‘part-time’ or ‘temporary’ employment contracts are terminated. These jobs are especially problematic because policies such as the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030—in line with Sustainable Development Goals—aim to reduce poverty by creating sustainable employment. Contrarily, these kinds of jobs make it hard to achieve poverty reduction, because they are inherently unsustainable and barely lift people (especially young people) from unemployment and poverty. Based on these results, it can be asserted that the proliferation of non-standard employment compromises the agenda for decent work, and it delays the already sluggish Sustainable Development goal of creating sustainable employment (among other goals). This, then, reveals that there is still a stark and long-standing need for more radical strategies that will ensure the creation of sustainable jobs—without which the unemployment crisis will be far from over. Moreover, the results further indicate that the reasons why the minority of the sampled employers do not employ young people boil down to the fact that young people usually do not have what employers look for in their potential recruits; or that young people do not have what employers believe will contribute to the growth and productivity of their firms. In essence, employers will never employ any young person (or any jobseeker in general) that will be a liability than an asset in their firms. Over and above, this thesis corroborates many of the explanations—encapsulated in the growing literature—for rising unemployment, as well as the claims that unemployment is highly pronounced among young people. However, the contribution of this thesis is that it further offers a nuanced view to understanding the demand-side factors (as additional determinants) that hinder the employment of young people (especially those who make up the NEETs category). , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2022
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  • Date Issued: 2022-10-14

Socio-historical analysis of organisational change: a case study of Zimbabwe posts (Zimpost), 2010–2020

  • Authors: Kambarami-Zengeni, Faith Chipo
  • Date: 2022-10-14
  • Subjects: Organizational change Zimbabwe , Fordism , Industrial management , Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1856-1915 , Industrial relations , Postal service Management
  • Language: English
  • Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/327920 , vital:61170 , DOI 10.21504/10962/327920
  • Description: Postal organisations play an important role in the provision of basic communication services. In Zimbabwe, post offices have a large physical distribution network of over 240 post offices country-wide to make communication services accessible to the populace. However, e-substitution has threatened mail business significantly. Postal operators globally are experiencing declining mail volumes in the face of advanced information and communication technologies. The overall goal of this thesis was to undertake a socio-historical analysis of organisational change at ZimPost using Taylorism, Fordism and post-Fordism as broad ideal types to explain how industry evolves in different phases of capitalism. National politics and economics play an integral role in how Taylorism, Fordism and post-Fordism assumed at ZimPost. Studies on these broad organising types have mainly focused on private sector organisations. However, this thesis argues that these analytical paradigms are also valid in public sector organisations, but they will unfold differently given the context in which change is experienced. Using a qualitative approach, the study established that the 1980s and 1990s can best be described as the ‘golden years’ of postal services in Zimbabwe, characterised by mass production and mass consumption of postal products and services. At that time the Posts and Telecommunications Corporation enjoyed a monopoly of postal services in the country. The stable market share, competitive salaries for postal workers, increased unionisation and a fairly stable economy enabled a Fordist regime of accumulation to develop. The cycle broke down when the mode of regulation was weakened by national economic and political changes towards the late 1990s. PTC started to experience a decline in the consumption of postal products. The decline was also attributed to increased competition from smaller private courier operators that could provide specialised services to a market with changing needs. With increased competition, the advancement of information, and communication technologies, mail volumes dwindled. This period can best be described as the crisis of Fordism at ZimPost. In the year 2000, the government unbundled the posts and telecommunications corporation to create four companies including Zimbabwe Posts. This was perceived as one of the most radical organisational changes in the history of postal services in Zimbabwe. More organisational changes took place at ZimPost that can best be described as characteristics of post-Fordism. These changes were attempts by ZimPost to remain relevant in light of the economic, political and technological changes taking place in the country. The postal operator introduced customised products in the form of agency services, supported by increased use of information and communication technologies in the post office. Organisational changes at ZimPost were shaped mainly by the economic and political environment in which they took place. Organisational change is complex, changes do not follow a linear pattern, they are processual. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2022
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  • Date Issued: 2022-10-14

Decent work in global production networks: a study of Eswatini’s sugarcane outgrower schemes

  • Authors: Ginindza, Wezizwe Sibusisiwe
  • Date: 2021-10-29
  • Subjects: Sugar trade Eswatini , Sugar trade Brazil , Sugar trade Employees , International Labour Organisation , Manpower policy Eswatini , Industrial relations Eswatini , Sex discrimination in employment Eswatini , Eswatini Politics and government , Agricultural laborers Employment Eswatini , Global Production Network (GPN)
  • Language: English
  • Type: Master's theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190295 , vital:44981
  • Description: Research on Eswatini’s sugar industry has expanded rapidly over the past few years, which has provided information on increasing efficiencies under climate change, market competitiveness, and business integration in the industry. Such studies explore opportunities to increase profitability and sustainability in the sugar industry; motivated by low world sugar prices and rising costs of production. However, studies on farmworkers’ conditions of work at the production node of the sugarcane production network are limited. Often, suppliers/producers in the agricultural sector are faced with a dilemma of meeting market demands and maintaining secure work for their employees – but the market and institutional pressures in Eswatini’s sugar industry, because of the country’s participation in the global sugarcane production network, continue to contribute towards decent work deficits on sugarcane farms. This study, being informed by the Global Production Network (GPN) framework, evaluates workers’ conditions in the context of local embeddedness. The GPN framework enables a deeper analysis of the role of labour and the value workers add to the production process. Imperative to this study is to recognise workers’ struggles as they participate in the sugarcane production network as an effective way of locating decent work in Eswatini’s small- and medium-sized sugarcane outgrower farms. Using seven indicators adopted from the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work pillars, this study shows how the specific conditions at the production node of the network (farms) are embedded in a particular historical, institutional, and regulatory context, which included non-firm actors (in particular, Eswatini’s government) who, in combination, shape the dynamics of the sugar industry. The study concluded that decent work deficits include informal and flexible employer-employee relations between farmers and farmworkers; the unfair treatment of women farmworkers on small-scale sugarcane farms; Eswatini’s political climate and its impact on trade union representation on farms; and the effects that climate change has on farmworkers’ conditions of work. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
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  • Date Issued: 2021-10-29

Working and Living Conditions of Seasonal Workers in the Agro-processing sector: a Case study of Carara Agro-Processing Services (Pty) Ltd

  • Authors: Ngidi, Buyisiwe Sime
  • Date: 2021-10-29
  • Subjects: Seasonal labor South Africa , Labor market South Africa , Agricultural processing industries South Africa , Agricultural processing industry workers Employment South Africa , Employee rights South Africa , Unfair labor practices South Africa , South Africa. Labour Relations Act, 1995 , Carara Agro-Processing Services (Firm)
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/188799 , vital:44786
  • Description: This thesis analyses the working and living conditions of seasonal workers. In the context of increased demand for processed and higher-value food products, the agro-processing industry has been identified as a main contributor in the South African labour market (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2012: 17). In an effort to achieve high production outputs while saving on operational costs, employers have been seen incorporating more non-standard labour. In the agro-processing industry, non-standard labour has been in the form of seasonal workers which has been a matter of concern to state structures tasked with ensuring company compliance with labour regulations, especially as it relates to the protection of workers within the industry. Many of these workers are offered little protection, sub-standard working conditions, irregular working hours, having little or no benefits, lacking skills and often facing a lack of trade union representation (Fourie, 2008:111). The introduction of section 198B of Labour Relations Act (LRA) has been designed to address the rights of non-standard workers and to provide protection against exploitative practices within various industries (Griessel, 2015:1). The thesis focuses its attention on the role of social reproduction and the labour process in perpetuating domination and inequalities within the workplace. Further, the thesis examines the challenges of non-standard labour and the difficulties of regulating it in practice. It also discusses the livelihood strategies adopted by seasonal workers when not employed, in this case, by Carara Agro Processing Services. The research adopted qualitative research techniques in the form of semi-structured interviews and used purposive and snowball sampling in accessing relevant data for analysis purposes. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
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  • Date Issued: 2021-10-29

“Willing victims”: a study of Zimbabwean migrant workers in the citrus industry of the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape

  • Authors: Maisiri, Brandon James
  • Date: 2021-10-29
  • Subjects: Migrant agricultural laborers South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Foreign workers, Zimbabwean South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Citrus fruit industry South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Job creation South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Work environment South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Agricultural wages Social aspects South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Marginality, Social South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Migrant agricultural laborers Legal status, laws, etc South Africa , Global Value Chains , International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda
  • Language: English
  • Type: Master's theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190657 , vital:45015
  • Description: The citrus fruit industry is a large, lucrative industry on the global market. South Africa's citrus fruit industry competes globally and is firmly intergraded into the citrus global value chain (GVC). Sunday River's Valley (SRV) in the Eastern Cape is a powerhouse citrus producer in South Africa. This dissertation interrogates the impact of the citrus value chain on Zimbabwean unskilled immigrant farmworkers in the SRV, positioned at the bottom of the value chain. Mainstream global chain literature, which adopts a neo-liberal approach to development, assumes that businesses in the global south stand to benefit from integrating into global chains. This line of thinking also assumes that, by virtue of the suppliers’ experiencing economic upgrading, farm owners’ employees may experience social upgrading. The idea of social upgrading stems from the International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda, which promotes workers' rights and conditions globally. In the agricultural sector, there is a growing trend of producers (in the global south) employing undocumented immigrant farmworkers. Free market economists perceive these immigrants' employment in the agricultural value chain as a progressive step for immigrants to step out of poverty. This study employs a qualitative research method to analyse social upgrading for immigrant workers in the citrus GVC. This is done by examining the selected workers' working and living conditions against the key pillars of the Decent Work Agenda. Using the critical GVC framework and a Marxist orientation, this study seeks to show that the use of migrant (especially undocumented) labour in the agricultural value chains is not empowering immigrants in the global south but is essentially a strategy of securing cheap and docile labour for profit maximization. While this can be said for local South African workers as well, the migrant workforce is peculiar as their fragile citizenship in South Africa makes them a less resistant labour force to farm owners labour law violations. This study's findings validate this contention, as they show that immigrants employed in the citrus industry in the Eastern Cape are subjected to several Decent Work deficits. The findings also show that these immigrants have no access to mechanisms of empowerment and are barely surviving from their earnings. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
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  • Date Issued: 2021-10-29

The impact of labour legislation on selected small firms in Mbombela (Nelspruit)

  • Authors: Dlamini, Sikhulile Blessing
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa , Small business -- Law and legislation-- South Afric , Small business -- South Africa -- Mbombela -- Case studies
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/170781 , vital:41959
  • Description: This study uses the theoretical framework of industrial relations pluralism, to study and analyse the impacts of labour legislation on six small firms (employing less than 50 workers) based in Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit), Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The analysis is based on the viewpoints of six managers and how they see the impacts of labour legislation on their respective firms. The analysis is aided by utilising theory and literature to make sense of the manager perspectives on the topic. Also, utilising a qualitative research design to collect and analyse the data, the study presents diverse findings in terms of how the participants perceived and experienced certain types of legislation. Some managers believed that the benefits of labour legislation outweighed the costs. While others believed the exact opposite. At an overall level, the study revealed that most of the participants were not as severely affected by labour legislation as might be expected; given the scarcity of resources in most small firms. This was partly because of various coping strategies and practices (mostly involving the use of informal procedures) that were adopted by the firms. Also, some small firms who aimed at expanding their businesses strategised to adopt some formal procedures and practices in order to easily absorb labour legislation and subsequently mordenise their businesses in the process. While a few firms persisted with more informal customs as they appeared cost-effective and necessary in their particular market positioning.
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  • Date Issued: 2021

Poor whites and the post-apartheid labour market: a study of perceptions and experiences of work among residents in a homeless shelter in Johannesburg

  • Authors: Wollnik, Nadjeschda
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Poor whites -- South Africa , Poor whites -- South Africa -- Atitudes , Shelters for the homeless -- South Africa , Unemployed -- South Africa -- Attitudes , Unemployed -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991-
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148540 , vital:38748
  • Description: Despite historical precedents, poverty among white people in South Africa remains an anomaly and a paradox. Likewise, the perceptions of work and employment among poor (under- and unemployed) whites in contemporary South Africa have received scant attention in the scholarly literature. Using the conceptual frameworks of critical whiteness studies and segmented labour market theory – as a way of combining subjective and objective considerations – this research seeks to describe and explain the perceptions and experiences of the labour market among poor whites living in a homeless shelter in Johannesburg. Eight respondents were chosen for extended, in-depth interviews in an effort to develop a fine-grained understanding of the pre-existing circumstances that affected their access to information and thus shaped their choices in the labour market, as well as to ascertain what they believed to be the barriers that they face in the labour market. The findings varied, with most of the interviewees seeing ‘being white’ as the reason for their poverty and unemployment, while others exhibited some awareness of the role of their lack of skills and qualifications in their capacity to compete in higher segments of the labour market. The findings were also varied in the sense that not all interviewees experienced poverty in the same manner, with some having been part of the middle class prior to becoming poor, while others having been poor their entire lives. It was also found that class or socio-economic status seemed to have a greater impact than race on the labour market prospects of the interviewees. It is argued that the perceptions of these poor whites, which are informed by their lack of information about the workings of the labour market, rather than their lack of qualifications or their race, most affected their prospects in the labour market. The mechanisms they rely on when seeking employment reveal a poor knowledge of the local labour market and the ways in which they think their skillsets match up to the types of jobs they desire. The lack of understanding of the South African labour market and the policies that are in place to redress the legacies of apartheid are among the factors influencing the lack of success these poor whites are experiencing in their search for work.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

South Africa’s mohair value chain: institutional framework, governance and the perceptions of management and labour

  • Authors: Heald, Arisa Oka
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Management -- Employee participation , Management -- Employee participation -- South Africa , Agriculture -- South Africa -- History , Mohair industry -- South Africa , Mohair industry -- South Africa -- Employees
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/164669 , vital:41153
  • Description: The primary objective of this research is to understand the ways in which the (working and living) conditions confronting employers and employees on mohair farms are the complex outcome of their position in the global mohair value chain, the nature of the labour process, and the ‘contours of voice’ (i.e., how and why employees voice). These three bodies of literature represent different levels of analysis: at the broadest level, the political economy of the mohair value chain is explained by drawing on the chain literature. This literature has been supplemented, at the level of the production process, by deploying the concepts of labour process theory (LPT), which focus on the control of work processes by management as well as workers’responses to this control. These responses were analysed by incorporating insights from the burgeoning research on employee voice (EV) in an effort to understand the practical ways in which workers on mohair farms articulate their needs and interests. The cross-collination of these three bodies of literature is, to my knowledge, a novel feature of this research on the mohair industry in South Africa, which, in turn, has itself been woefully under-researched. The research design consisted of a qualitative approach in which I used in-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions as the primary sources of data collection. The secondary source of data was available publications and documents from the agriculture industry and mohair sector. A qualitative approach acknowledges and gives great insight and meaning into the research topic. Twenty participants were interviewed for my research: six from key organisations within the mohair industry, ten farmers, two mohair farm workers and two mohair shearers. The main findings of the research include the following: first, institutions in South Africa’s mohair industry not only determine (in part) the structure of the mohair value chain but also play a vital role in governing the chain. Each institution and actor plays a significant role in adding value to the mohair product that leads to economic upgrading. Second, understanding the actions of farmers (as employers) by drawing on LPT allows me to show how the systemic pressures of capitalist accumulation compel employers to continuously enhance their control over production – and, by extension, over workers – who, in turn, resist and/or accommodate to these impositions by management. Lastly, the research shows that employee voice at the farm level is complex and contested – not surprisingly, given South Africa’s troubled history – yet, it is increasingly exercised by farm workers and accepted by mohair farmers as a necessary and inescapable means of resolving issues that arise in the employment relationship at the workplace and remaining competitive in a global market.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

The impact of minimum wages on human resource management practices in the hospitality industry: a case study of selected firms in Polokwane, Limpopo Province

The impact of the minimum wage on poverty and industrial relations in the hospitality industry in Grahamstown, South Africa

  • Authors: Maqubela, Zikisa
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Hospitality industry -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Minimum wage -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Poverty -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Wages -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Service industries workers -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/118685 , vital:34658
  • Description: This dissertation endeavours to unpack and understand the impact of the minimum wage on the hospitality industry with a specific focus on Grahamstown. The areas of impact that are of immediate interest were the impact on poverty and industrial relations. In operationalising this research, a qualitative research approach was adopted. The overall design of the study was a case study in a bid to ensure deeper insights may be extracted from semi-structured interviews that were then thematically analysed. Theoretically, the study was guided by the understanding of citizenship as articulated by Mamdani as well as Keynesian theory. The central theme when exploring the minimum wage in relation to poverty is that the minimum wage that is currently paid is enough to aid workers and their families in escaping abject poverty, however, it does not go far enough to further ensure that they totally escape poverty as measured by the Upper Bound Poverty Line. The inadequacy of the minimum wage in ensuring that people are pushed out of poverty would then mean that their claims to citizenship are compromised and the quality of life they can access is often below what would be readily accepted of a citizen of South Africa. Lifestyle entrepreneurs offer an alternative approach to doing business that can see higher pay as further entrench claims to citizenship. The central case around industrial relations is that the impact of the minimum wage is indeterminate for two reasons. Broadly speaking, the impact would need to be reviewed at a macro-level and not simply within the impacted sectors. This is the various interconnected value chains that could feel indirect impacts at the initiation of a minimum wage. Further, the impact such changes has to individual firms is also indeterminate as employers have a range of choices that they can adopt in absorbing the impact of a minimum wage, which may include simply increasing the price the end consumer pays or retrenching some staff members. However, the choice that employers would make in this context is not predetermined but rather would vary between firms due to the very specifics of each firm.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

‘Regulated Flexibility’ and labour market regulation: a case Study of Twizza Soft Drinks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

  • Authors: Flatau, Scott
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Labor market -- South Africa , Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Case studies
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141288 , vital:37959
  • Description: Following the negotiated settlement, which led to the ANC assuming power in South Africa in1994, debates concerning the nature of the South African labour market ensued between policy makers and economists alike. Central to understanding the South African labour market was the policy objective of regulated flexibility that has guided the formation of labour legislation in the post-1994 period, including the Labour Relations Act of 1995, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997, the Employment Equity Act of 1998 and the Skills Development Act of 1998. Regulated flexibility attempts to accommodate the interests of the employer for flexibility and the interests of the employee in regulation or security. These four Acts and the relevant provisions contained within them are the central focus of this research paper, in particular how they affect the case study firm Twizza Soft Drinks. An interpretivist approach was utilised as the preferred research methodology with in-depth, semi-structured interviews being the primary source of data collection. This research paper attempts to situate more clearly the impact of South Africa’s macro-economic policies since 1994 on labour market policy and undertakes an exploration of internal dynamics of firms in response to exogenous factors, such as government regulation. The key finding suggest that some Acts (BCEA, LRA) do not impose a significant burden on the firm and some provisions can lead to beneficial outcomes such as business modernisation and the adoption of formal Human Resource Practices. Conversely, some provisions contained in the EEA increase the administrative burden and therefore increase the indirect cost on the firm.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Labour market perceptions of students at a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college in Grahamstown, South Africa

  • Authors: Khambule, Nelisa
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Eastcape Midlands College (Makhanda, South Africa) -- Students -- Attitudes , College students -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Attitudes , College graduates -- Employment -- South Africa , Labor market -- South Africa , Employability -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96515 , vital:31289
  • Description: In the context of South Africa, the supply of intermediate to high-level skills is central to economic growth and development. The post-school education and training sector is a critical source of these skills. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges are expected to provide the intermediate to high-level skills that are required in a fast-changing global and national economy. In addition to fulfilling the goal of meeting the skills needs of the country, TVET colleges are expected to expand access to education and training opportunities and create pathways that will ensure smooth transitions for learners from college to employment. Using the third-generation labour market segmentation approach to the study of labour markets, this study sought to investigate the various socio-political factors that influence TVET college students’ perceptions about employment opportunities in the labour market with a NCV qualification. Using a qualitative methodology, this research investigated whether TVET students at Eastcape Midlands College felt adequately prepared for the labour market with their prospective post-secondary school qualification. The findings varied, with some students being of the view that the theoretical component of their programme of study could be improved to better prepare them for the labour market, and others, being of the view that the practical component could be improved. At a general level, the findings showed that the students did not have perfect knowledge of the availability of employment opportunities for their prospective qualifications.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Students’ perceptions of their employability as revealed by their understandings of the South African Labour Market

  • Authors: Gabobegwe, Maoshadi Keletso
  • Date: 2019
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71482 , vital:29857
  • Description: The state of the South African labour market is characterized −among other things− by inequalities and the chronic issue of unemployment, with a rate that has come up to 27.7% in the third quarter of 2017. Considering this, unemployment in South Africa is explained by numerous authors as a structural issue. In a sense that unemployed people do not have the skills required by the labour market. But, since education attainment improves an individuals’ employment prospects and outcome. It would be expected that people with higher education would have high prospects of getting employment. Yet, people with higher education qualifications also face challenges of obtaining employment. Even though research finds that graduate unemployment is not as bad when compared to general and overall unemployment of the country. It still remains that skills shortages and/or mismatch are deemed to be the main contributor of the South African graduate unemployment. Existing research finds that just as the labour market is characterized with differences on the grounds of gender and race. This also reflects on how graduates enter the labour market. With the white race having more employment outcomes than blacks and males than females. It is against this background that this dissertation set out to explore what Rhodes University final-year students’ −who are nearing the transition from varsity to the labour market− perceive to be their employment prospects and outcomes. Taking into consideration the issue of unemployment and inequalities in the labour market. In essence, one of the key issues that the dissertation focuses on, is what students think of their employability based on their understanding of the labour market. More than that, the dissertation investigates how aspects such as the student’s field of study, race and gender factor into how students understand the labour market and ultimately how they perceive their employment prospects and outcomes. As a consequence, evidence suggests that students’ perceptions of the labour market influences how they perceive their employability. Over and above, the research finds that the students field of study especially, features significantly in how students perceive the labour market and their employability. While race and gender also factored in students’ responses, it was not as significant as compared to their field of study respectively. The general finding is that students are well aware of the issues of the labour market and are concerned about the implications of these issues on their employability. This awareness and concern varied based on students’ field of study, race and gender.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

The impact of South African business on employment relations in Mozambique: a case study of Banco Austral, a subsidiary of ABSA

  • Authors: Mtyingizana, Beata Nontlahla
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: Industrial sociology -- Mozambique , Industrial relations -- Mozambique , Industrial relations -- Cross-cultural studies , Industrial sociology -- Political aspects , Personnel management -- Mozambique , Personnel management -- Political aspects , ABSA Bank , Banco Austral
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60267 , vital:27760
  • Description: This thesis examines the impact of South African business on employment relations in Mozambique. The study specifically focuses on a case study of Banco Austral, a subsidiary of the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA), to provide a richer and deeper analysis of employment practices. The study examines the extent to which the expansion of South African businesses in Mozambique has influenced the development of employment relations there. It examines whether the employment relations that exist at Banco Austral are a direct result of the influence of its parent firm, ABSA. It assesses whether the prevailing managerial practices at Banco Austral are distinctly local and a product of Mozambican history or whether the employer and employee relations that exist in that bank are an outcome of some form of hybridised host country and parent firm practices. The study is contextualised within the period of transition that both countries underwent. In the South African context, the end of apartheid promised political stability, democracy and racial harmony. It facilitated South Africa’s reinsertion into the international economy and enabled its investors to embark on large-scale penetration of potential markets. It also opened up opportunities for investors to take advantage of the new global order in the rest of Africa and particularly in Mozambique. Similarly, in Mozambique, the transition to capitalism and to liberal democracy in 1994 marked a clear shift of policy from an authoritarian one-party state characterised by a planned socialist economy. In embracing a liberal market economy, Mozambique facilitated a transference of ownership of major state assets to the private sector and opened itself to the private sector’s market-driven business practices and managerial cultures. The study found that the impact of these historical developments on the evolution of employment relations at Banco Austral has been contradictory. ABSA’s ownership of Banco Austral opened as many opportunities as it closed them. On the one hand, it marked an opportunity for the growth and development of the ABSA brand across Mozambique. It presented opportunities for the integration of the Mozambican workforce into the larger ABSA Group and thereby enabling the transference of innovative managerial practices, world class human resources management techniques and advanced banking technology from ABSA and into Banco Austral. ABSA’s acquisition of Banco Austral also opened prospects for the development of skills for the workforce, enhanced the chances of job mobility as well as opened opportunities for Banco Austral workers to take advantage of the newly created jobs. On the other hand, however, the managerial practices and the human resource management techniques transferred from ABSA was reported by Banco Austral workers to be far from innovative. Instead, they resembled traits of past practices characteristic of Mozambique’s colonial workplace regime and South Africa’s apartheid workplace regime. This tilted the balance of power in favour of managers who arbitrarily exercised their authority in ways similar to that of the Portuguese managers in colonial Mozambique and that of the production councils during the post-independence socialist period. Access to senior positions and training opportunities continued to be allocated along national and racial lines. Many Mozambican workers were said to be ABSA-unfit and could not be trained in critical areas to improve their relevance in the larger ABSA Group. Despite these findings however, this study shows that Banco Austral workers were not helpless actors in the employment relationship. Rather, they remained agents of change in their own right, endowed with varying degrees of power, which they used to minimise the impact of arbitrary management practices and influence the direction of the employment relationship to advance their interests. The argument of this thesis is advanced by locating the study within Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical triad of capital, field and habitus. Bourdieu’s theoretical triad is used as important analytical tools for understanding how ABSA-specific practices evolved and continued to shape the conduct and thoughts of its managers and workers alike. This study also makes special contribution to Marxism by revisiting Marx’s conception of the labour process to expose a number of analytical dilemmas when Marx is applied to bank labour.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

My madam: same race, different class: living and working conditions of undocumented, migrant BaSotho domestic workers employed in black middle class houshold

  • Authors: Madonsela, Koketso Njabulo Gosiame
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: Black women household empoyees -- South Africa , Black employers -- South Africa , Women household employees -- South Africa , Women, Sotho -- Employment -- South Africa , Businesspeople, Black -- South Africa , Migrant labor -- South Africa , Illegal aliens -- South Africa , Master and servant -- South Africa , Women, Black -- Employment -- South Africa , Industrial relations -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/35166 , vital:24337
  • Description: Jacklyn Cock’s Maids and Madams is a study on domestic work in the Eastern Cape which places a focus on black domestic workers who work in white families. Cock’s study was ground-breaking research within labour development in South Africa (with regards to domestic service). The apartheid system regarded domestic work as that of social reproduction: domestic workers left their families to replenish and reproduce the labour power of white families, whose members were employed in a formal workplace. The contribution to this system, according to Cock (1989), was unbreakable because they did not earn enough money to disrupt the system. The respondents of this thesis are undocumented migrant Basotho domestic workers. These domestic workers have much in common with Cock’s respondents. For one, they leave their homes and families to replenish the labour power of black middle class families, whose members are employed in a formal workplace. The difference between this thesis and Cock’s study is that the respondents’ employers are members of the black middle class. Furthermore, the employees are undocumented Basotho domestic workers. Undocumented, migrant, Basotho domestic workers are in a similarly vulnerable position to that of Cock’s respondents. This dissertation engages with the extent to which Maids and Madams is still relevant to the living and working conditions of a new vulnerable workforce in the domestic sector: undocumented, female, Basotho domestic workers employed in black, middle-class households in Gauteng. The dissertation also finds that the relationship between the black migrant domestic worker and the black middle class employer is influenced cultural aspects of what domestic chores represent in black families, and the element of respect from employers (particularly to elderly domestic workers) or lack thereof. This dissertation underlines that the term “ousi” makes the Basotho domestic workers a collective, and not individuals. Thus the term “ousi” can be viewed as the term that takes away the identity of the domestic worker. The theoretical framework of the research is labour process theory (LPT). The new wave of labour process theorists are much more focused on the service industry. LPT is significant to this research because its focus is on the subjective experiences of the workers. This is the core purpose of the thesis. The focus of the new wave LPT involves a shift from understanding workers at a macro level to understanding the subjective experiences of the workers (in the service industry) at a micro level. This provides an appropriate framework to study the subjective working and living experiences of undocumented, migrant, Basotho domestic workers. The research design is based on qualitative research. The research made use of in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The selection of respondents was done through purposive sampling. They findings of this research highlighted the central themes in the relevant literature. However, the key findings of this research also reveal tensions and contradictions that are not explored in detail in the existing literature. For example, the relationship between the black middle class employer and the black domestic worker has tensions which originate from a cultural context. The respondents of this dissertation and their employers are of the same race, yet are of a different class.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2017

E-governance in the public sector : a case study of the central admission system in Tanzania

  • Authors: Mahundu, Fabian G
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: Universities and colleges -- Tanzania -- Admission , Universities and colleges -- Tanzania -- Entrance requirements , Education, Higher -- Tanzania , Information technology -- Social aspects -- Tanzania.
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3409 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020845
  • Description: This thesis sets out to answer the following central research question: what are the influences, challenges, benefits and costs of the Central Admission System (CAS) as an e-Governance initiative in improving undergraduates’ admissions service delivery and quality assurance in Tanzania’s higher education institutions?’ In answering this key question, three sub-questions were explored: (1) To what extent and in what ways does the implementation of the CAS influence the organisation of admissions work and workplace relations in higher education institutions? (2) What are the sociotechnical challenges of implementing the CAS? (3) What are the advantages of the CAS in improving admissions service delivery and quality assurance in higher education institutions? The sociotechnical theoretical framework is an ideal for exploring these issues as it accommodates the understanding of dual relationship between social and technological aspects of the CAS in line with the contextual issues in its implementation. The focus of the thesis is on Tanzania’s higher education institutions where the CAS is being implemented. The study is informed by data collected through interviews and documentary analysis. Data organization and analysis was done using NVivo 10 QSR software. The study demonstrates that, notwithstanding the fast development and uptake of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the implementation of the CAS in Tanzania is hampered by the fact that most of the end-users of CAS (particularly applicants) have relatively low access to the ICT infrastructure. Several factors continue to have a significant effect on the implementation of CAS, which in turn lead to implications for the uptake of improved admissions service delivery and quality assurance. A digital divide, resistance to change by some higher education institutions (HEIs), poor ICT skills among applicants, the costs of internet services, unreliable electricity supply, and inadequate IT experts continue to frustrate the objective of improved admissions service delivery and quality assurance. As a technological innovation in the workplace, the CAS has led to a restructuring of admissions work tasks among admissions officers, a need to review job descriptions, introduced tighter controls over admission work processes, and has shaped admission workers’ professional identities and self-presentations.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Impact of sectoral determinations in previously unregulated sectors: a case study of domestic work in Grahamstown

  • Authors: Nxokweni, Saphokazi
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3761 , vital:20542
  • Description: Domestic labour is widely recognized as one of the most vulnerable labour sectors, both nationally and internationally. In South Africa, sectoral determination 7 was specifically developed to protect domestic workers’ rights and provide them with the means to negotiate with and hold employers to account. However, research over the past years has demonstrated that, while some areas of domestic labour have improved, many workers are still locked in exploitative labour relationships. This research shows that it may seem as if there are significant changes in this sector since the introduction of the sectoral determination, but paternalistic orientations, one-of-the-family myths, and food distribution suggest otherwise. The research concluded that continuities of exploitative and discriminatory practices are still prominent in the employment relationship when viewed through the lens of paternalistic care, food distribution, and the ‘one-of-the-family’ myth.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Perceptions and experiences of G2E e-Government workplace restructuring: The cases of Buffalo City and City of Cape Town metropolitan municipalities, South Africa

  • Authors: Makwembere, Sandra
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/617 , vital:19975
  • Description: Taking the cases of Buffalo City Metropolitan municipality (BCMM) and City of Cape Town Metropolitan municipality (CoCT), this thesis explores the implications of government to employee (G2E) electronic government workplace restructuring on skills transformation and workplace control as perceived by back office employees and managers from different Corporate Services departments. It aims to describe the arrangements, rationale and degree of G2E e-government at BCMM and CoCT, investigate how managers, employees and union representatives identify the workplace changes relating to skill as well as document and analyse workplace struggles linked to G2E e-government. Using labour process analysis, the impacts of G2E e-government technological change are conceptualised. The labour process concepts alert us to ways in which G2E e-government technology is applied in the context of specific public sector production relations. They explain how employees and managers experience the dynamics of skill transformation and the mechanisms of control related to G2E e-government. The consideration of the labour process contrasts predominant e-government scholarly works that focus on government websites. Further, by using case study methods, namely interviews, surveys and observations, the thesis documents the particular back office employees’ and managers’ realities of G2E e-government which are marginalised in scholarly literature. The sample of respondents were selected using purposive sampling based on the subjects’ knowledge and experience, snowball sampling following referrals and random sampling during site visits. The respondents included four managers, four employees, two shop stewards and one service provider at BCMM and 16 managers, 20 employees and four shop stewards at CoCT. The findings from BCMM and CoCT illustrate how G2E e-government workplace restructuring individualises the labour process through the kind of technologies it introduces. Moreover, they show how the restructuring facilitates electronic information, communication and operations which broaden demands on technical as well as social skills. The findings also show that the restructuring extends avenues for managerial control thereby marginalising union representivity as the workplace control systems create opportunities for systemic control by management. As the South African government adopts electronic government and makes optimistic declarations of “cost saving”, “efficiency”, “productivity” and “innovation” through egovernment, the study uncovers marginalised local government employee and manager experiences. It contributes to building new knowledge on the impacts of contemporary technological change on the local government labour process and contributes to debates around the effects of G2E e-government reforms on local government.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2016

Restructuring in higher education institutions: a case study of centralised cleaning services at Rhodes University

  • Authors: Ntlokwana, Ziyanda
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3738 , vital:20540
  • Description: The centralization of cleaners at Rhodes University has been the university’s response to the pressures put on higher education. This form of restructuring is the university’s attempt at dealing with the government’s cuts in funding despite the increasing demands placed on higher education institutions. The demands on universities necessitates that they compete on a global scale ,which sometimes sees many universities adopting a ‘neoliberal logic’ and as a result cutting labour costs to survive and compete. The aim of this study was to examine the nature and form of restructuring at Rhodes University and its impact on the workers’ lives. This research made use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods: namely, a quantitative survey that focused on the cleaners and in-depth interviews with trade union representatives. This research discovered that the restructuring programme at Rhodes University is different from that at other universities through its avoidance of outsourcing and the retrenchment of workers. Despite this tricky balance, however, the effects of this form of restructuring largely embody outsourcing characteristics and as a result disadvantage the cleaners.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2016
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