CWAO is a non-profit, independent organisation that aims to improve the conditions of work and existence of precarious workers across South Africa.
Facts About Us
The Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO) was founded in 2011.
It is a non-profit, independent organisation.
It provides advice and support to workers, privileging casual, contract, labour broker and other precarious workers.
It has a 4-person management committee and 17 full-time staff.
The organisation is located close to the Germiston railway station and taxi rank, and is very accessible for the East Rand townships that it services.
Our Work at CWAO
The Casual Workers' Advice Office undertakes to provide:
- Advice and support to workers, individually or in groups
- Assistance to organise 'precarious' workers
- Mass education, including through community radio and social media
- Support to other initiatives involved in organising precarious workers, including trade unions in the Southern Africa region.
Our Network
The organisation connects with emerging worker self-initiatives, NGOs organising precarious workers such as Women on Farms Project, advice offices nationally, support organisations such as Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and Legal Resources Centre, and hosts a network of Southern Africa trade unions interested in organising precarious workers.
The CWAO is involved in social justice campaigns, in alliance with other advice offices and social justice organisations.
The CWAO encourages and supports the emergence of organisation among precarious workers through these activities.
Why We Exist
The organisation was formed out of the recognition that the traditional labour movement appears incapable or unwilling to organize the new kinds of workers created by neo-liberalism.
This recognition also informs the emphasis the CWAO places on precarious workers beginning to organize themselves in appropriate ways.
Structural changes in the world of work have rendered the old industrial model of organizing unsuitable for precarious workers. Indeed, it seems no longer suitable for traditional industrial workers themselves. The new organizational forms that will take its place will be determined by workers through struggle. It is only through organisation that precarious workers will best defend their rights, improve upon those rights, and connect with broader struggles for social justice and an egalitarian society
WORKER EDUCATION
Mass education on Worker's Rights mainly through community radio and social media
WORKER ADVICE & SUPPORT
Support for workers either individually or in groups on labour related issues
LABOUR RESOURCES
Support of labour brokers and advice centres by producing essential resources