CWAO IN THE NEWS

Around every corner there are men in blue overalls, climbing vast scaffolding, building and plastering.

It looks like progress, but it illustrates something different - precarious work is becoming the norm. Research indicates that the majority of these workers will not be permanently employed. Work, as we know it, has changed.

The International Labour Organisation, in a study of 180 countries, estimates that in 2015, stable, full-time employment represents fewer than one in four jobs.

In South Africa, between 25% and 50% of workers are estimated not to have permanent contracts. But the trend is global. About 90% of Chinese workers do not have permanent contracts. The organisation"s research also shows that so-called advanced economies, such as the United States and those in Europe, are showing the same trend - standard employment is less likely to be found.

'We"ve been saying this for 15 years,' says Jan Theron from the Institute of Development and Labour Law at the University of Cape Town.

There is no short answer to why permanent work is increasingly scarce but, Theron says, the restructuring of the workplace to the benefit of the top echelons of society has eroded the base of organised labour, the permanent worker.

Decreasing permanent work is part of 'externalising accountability' for one"s employees, he says.

Johan Visser, general manager at Lenco Construction, oversees a construction site in Johannesburg. In the 1980s, Visser would have employed his own staff, including labourers. Now, he keeps a skeleton staff of 40 or 50 people and outsources the rest.

'We are just lucky to have work,' he says. The construction industry is heaving, work is scarcer for bosses, and increasingly precarious for ordinary workers.

Visser says this is why he, like others, uses subcontractors rather than directly employing workers.

He learned this lesson recently, when work that was expected did not materialise. Carrying the costs of full-time staff when the company had no contracts cost his company R4.5-million in one year.

Subcontractors employ artisans, bricklayers, plasterers, painters and tilers. These workers earn on average a minimum of R120 a day.

But there are subcontractors who pay their workers less, sometimes just R80 a day, in an economy where the transport costs of workers alone can amount to R50 a day.

None of these workers are on full-time contracts. Subcontractors can recruit them from anywhere.

Visser says his company requires that the subcontractors it uses provide the relevant documentation, including tax certificates and workers" permits for those who come from outside the country.

But the world of subcontracting is murky, and rules are often broken.

'I know of subbies [subcontractors] who stand outside in the morning, take a thousand bucks out and say to the guys: "Divide this among yourselves."?' Then there are the 'aslams [asylum seekers]', a regular feature of the casual labour workforce. If a worker"s permit runs out while he"s under contract, Visser says he, the main contractor, 'will be in deep shit - they will lock me up on-site'.

But the regulations do not stop subcontractors from turning a blind eye to this.

This kind of casualised labour creates an additional layer of legal distance between the employer and the employee.

The Casual Workers Advice Office in Johannesburg is a nonprofit organisation that provides support to workers in a precarious situation. It receives many casualised workers, most of whom are fed up with trade unions" response to their plight.

The advice office"s Igshaan Schroeder says another form of casualisation is the use of labour brokers, which he calls a 'fig leaf' for employers. He says there has been a strong sense of outrage from workers. Trade unions have rallied against labour broking for years, yet as insecure work proliferates, there is little sign that these efforts will bear fruit.

'In that case, the workers" demands have been completely clear. They"re not reconciling to that form of labour. They are absolutely clear they should be employed by the client companies,' Schroeder says.

John* is a Mozambican who works on a construction site. The mangled index finger on his left hand contradicts his insistence that his job is not dangerous. He confesses that the counterweight from a lift on a construction site once landed on his hand. He pulls his hand back as he tells the story, a jerky reaction to the reminder of the pain.

In his current job, he earns about R6 000 a month. He has worked for the same contractor for six years; the job has never been permanent. His contract is renewed each year.

John is a case study in two trends. He was a mineworker at Impala Platinum before changing careers. He left when violent strikes made the environment unbearable for him.

It is increasingly rare for workers to stay in the same profession for their entire careers.

Research by the London Business School released in 2014 says this is especially true for people born in the 1980s and 1990s.

Second, John is part of a class of contract workers whose contracts are renewed at regular intervals.

John considers his work to be stable, even permanent, but it is not. Under the illusion that his job is not precarious, John does not question the nature or length of his contract.

The truth, however, is that his contract can be cancelled at the end of this very job, or the next, and he will have little recourse.

Schroeder says people like John work for the same company for years without the benefits that come with being a permanent, full-time worker.

Tshepo* has been a security guard for 12 years. Before that he was a hawker but ran out of money. He is part of another trend: low wages, even when work is permanent.

After 12 years of working 12-hour shifts, Tshepo confirms he earns a lot less than R12 000 a month. He is close to retirement age.

The numbers are sometimes disputed, but Statistics South Africa data suggests at least a fifth of South Africa"s workforce lives in poverty.

According to the International Trade Union Confederation"s (Ituc) 2015 Global Rights Index, South Africa, famed for its protection of workers" rights, is slipping on that score. This year, South Africa was rated with Angola, Lesotho and Brazil, where there had been repeated workers" rights violations.

Ituc estimates nine in 10 workers in Africa have informal work.

Schroeder says casual work is not recognised by South African labour law, yet workers are increasingly employed on a casual basis. There seems to be a sense of acceptance among many of these workers.

'This is partly because there"s a strong tradition of casual work in South Africa, and partly because the labour union movement hasn"t tried to organise these workers in any meaningful way,' says Schroeder.

These workers are invariably young, or immigrants, who are especially vulnerable.

UCT"s Theron says one option in combatting the lack of permanent work is a self-help response - the formation of workers" co-operatives.

He says there are cases where workers organise themselves in this way and have managed to earn a livelihood equivalent to a sectoral determination. 'It"s working for something which you control, under conditions which you control. You may not be able to pay annual leave because there might not be enough capital at any one time but you can be autonomous,' Theron says.

But government has moved to regulate co-operatives so heavily that they"re subject to the same standards as formal work. 'With all the hoops you have to jump through, you are right back where you were,' he says.

Schroeder says there is no reason workers should accept anything less than permanent work. 'It"s not that the nature of work has changed. Work doesn"t require more temporary workers. It is simply the bosses increasing their rates of exploitation … The workers" response is rational: they do the same work as permanent workers. It"s part of a successful struggle waged by the capitalist classes and there"s no reason why workers should accept that.'

Read More 

Category: MEDIA COVERAGE | LABOUR BROKERS