The Demonisation of Business by Government and Labour

Dr Ivor Blumenthal | CEO | ArkKonsult | mail me |

Blame ‘Capital Monopoly’ if you must, but blame ‘White Monopoly Capital’ at your peril.

The South African Government’s strategy, when dealing with the economic fallout, has been to set itself off against Business squarely, being the demon in society, while characterising Government as the White Knight out to protect society against the ravages of bad Business.

Of course, subsequently, at the end of July 2020, we learnt that indeed a particular segment of our society, the Nuevo Business Community, closely aligned to the ANC/SACP/COSATU Alliance are indeed the Demons in this story, while to the embarrassment of Government, not those demons characterised by Government.



It appears that, at last count by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), 103 companies which are the real ‘Capital Monopoly’. Guilty of fraud, corruption and recent crimes against South African Humanity, but not the ‘White Capital Monopoly’ every Government Minister, ANC Leader, SACP preacher and COSATU activist are so fond of prognosticating about. The target of every Malema or Shivambu which they shout against from their treetops. In hard cold and factual reality, just like the VBS saga, it is the Modern-Day Pirate, South African Tenderpreneur, that Nuevo New Enterprise entrant, that is the established devil in this story.

The strategy to Demonise Business in the fiasco which is UIF-TERS

The South African Minister of Employment and Labour has not had the gumption to be so overt and anti-White, in his regular public characterisation (until succumbing to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic himself) of Business, as the real antagonist in the fallout from Coronavirus amongst the South African working community.

However, not a single listener or observer to this Department’s regular media briefings are left in any doubt what this Minister and his politburo intend when they set worker off against employer. The intention is to create a race war between Black Employee’s rising to overthrow their White Employers.

In many Industries, this strategy is proving successful. The Department of Employment and Labour (DOEL) has, with its multiple public lies and misdirection, relating specifically to its legendary mismanagement of the UIF’s TERS Fund, somewhat comprehensively, managed to characterise Employers as liars and thieves and Employee’s as unfortunate victims at the hands of White Monopoly Capital. This strategy is singularly evidenced by the DOEL creating a gateway for Employee’s to verify against their ID Numbers, any-and-all payments made by the UIF to companies, not on their behalf, but on behalf of the Employee base as a whole.



So, workers go online, put in their ID numbers, see that the UIF has paid something to the company and are left to assume it’s on their behalf. Then the DOEL state publicly that these monies MUST be paid over to Employees. They fail to recognise that in 99% of cases, Employers advanced their Employee’s these monies and more, in anticipation of the UIF TERS. An expectation amongst Employees is that they are due the UIF TERS in addition to any other funds received from the employer during Lockdown and layoffs. The deceit from the DOEL is in remaining silent. It is in terms of their own rules that the state of Temporary Layoff dictates that TERS will only be paid out in the ABSENCE of any other monies being paid to the Employee.

Trade Unions are gunning for Business Owners who cannot avoid Section 189 consequences in the face of COVID-19:

The partners of Government, namely COSATU in-particular, has set its henchmen off on a path of countering and wrecking every Section 189 process it can find, legitimately or not.

Lies about what the LRA directs and doesn’t direct

This quest begins with an effort to re-write the Labour Relations Act (LRA). Trade Union Representatives have set about lying and deceiving Employee’s, their Members and fee-paying Constituency, into believing that the LRA says things and directs activities which it patently does not. Their strategy is to cast aspersions on Business and to categorise the intention of Business as being illegal and deceitful somehow. They are riling Employee’s up to misinterpret Section 189 and in-particular 189(3), and thereby they hope to undermine all S89 activities and legitimate procedural mechanisms.

Unfortunately, the majority of Business Owners are so weak and vulnerable in the wake of the evident COVID-19 ravages on their businesses, that instead of standing their ground against Trade Union Intrusions, they fold and, in the process, set the wrong precedents for the Business Community as a whole. They allow this re-writing of the LRA through what in Law will eventually come to be known as custom-and-practice diversions from the written word. Weak Business representatives are through their inaction allowing the hijacking of the Labour Relations Law in South Africa.

Trade Union Representatives de-legitimise S189 processes in the face of COVID-19

One of the most laughable counters to implementing S189 and possibly large-scale retrenchments are Trade Union assertions that COVID-19 somehow neutralises an Employer’s access to S189. It does not but never let the truth get in the way of good fiction.



Luckily, with modern technology and particularly liberalising platforms such as Whatsapp and Gmail, avenues to which 90% of our workforce now have access, and verifiable read-receipts, Managers can remotely communicate effectively with their Employees. They do not need to have to wait for a complete resumption of trading post Level 1 being reached.

Trade Union Representatives, however, will do everything they can in the course of S189 interactions to de-legitimise efforts to communicate, engage, meet remotely and elicit counter proposals to retrenchment possibilities. They are playing for time, but plant-level negotiators and facilitators quickly see through these rouses.

A remarkable assertion which has now crept into these engagements is the assertion by Employee Representatives that because of TERS an employer cannot legitimately justify retrenching staff. That despite the reality that the economic downswing started long before 27 March when the Lockdown was implemented.

What role will the CCMA and Bargaining Councils play in their relationships with Trade Unions and their Representatives?

The question is whether future research will illustrate if the CCMA and Bargaining Council mediation attempts will have played along with, legitimised and therefore condoned these games played by Trade Unions or in-fact balanced their impact in a neutral fashion. It is too early to tell but worthwhile research to consider moving forward.

Trade Unions the robber-baron opportunists in Bargaining Councils in the face of absent Business Representation

Using the most recently concluded agreement between Organised Business and Organised Labour at the National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Industry (NBCCI), it is clear that Trade Unions have set their sights on kicking Business while it is most vulnerable. Squeezing increases and compromise from representatives of the Business Community when it’s almost impossible for those Representatives even to try to get meaningful mandates from their constituencies.



The NBCCI Agreement is a case-in-point. It is here where effective Organised Business representation has been so weak and ineffective. Employer Representatives have been so wholly co-opted, captured and overpowered by powerful, aggressive and effective Trade Union strategists. There is an unwillingness by Organised Labour to compromise at all, to make allowances for any COVID-19 impact. Trade Union insistences have been readily agreed to by Employer Negotiators who operate in a heady place of sheltered employment and a sweetheart collegiate relationship with their Trade Union counterparts.

Accordingly, despite a 99% indication from the Business Constituency represented by those Business Representatives on the NBCCI structures, where the majority of companies acknowledged having to implement S189 processes and resultant retrenchments, the Trade Unions still managed to eek-out a 6.5% compromise in July from Organised Business, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The irony of the contradiction is lost on participants in the negotiation. On the one hand companies a RETRENCHING for Financial reasons, while on the other they have agreed to a 6.5% increase.

How do you justify the former in the face of the latter?

What makes matters worse however is the trajectory now agreed by Bargaining Council Social Partners to have the agreement extended by the Minister to non-parties in the Sector, which constitute some 72% of actual Industry participants. In reality, the game played here is that agreements entered into, by less than 38% of registered companies represented in the Bargaining Council, in the Industries constituting the Chemical Sector, will now get the Business-Hating Minister of Employment of Labour and his politburo of henchmen, to extend the ridiculously restrictive Bargaining Council agreement to 72% of registered companies in the Sector, who do not have representation on this Bargaining Council.



So much for Freedom of Association guaranteed by our Constitution!

So, the two questions have to be these:

1. How long will two of the three Social Partners be able to suck the hind you-know-what, of fewer and fewer registered and legitimate Businesses in South Africa while continuously and publicly demonising and vilifying that very same Business Community?

and

2. How long will the Business Community not take accountability and be mature enough to become responsible? How long will Business continue to place illegitimate, deployed and co-opted, captured business representatives into sensitive positions of power and influence to set policy and negotiate settlements into place, which invariably will continue to compromise, sell-out and damage the fabric of the Organised Business Communities in South Africa?