Labour
Striking farm workers reinstated
The eleven workers who were dismissed from Steytler Boerdery outside Robertson for taking part in strikes in January 2013 have reached a settlement with their employer and have been reinstated.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 9 January 2015
Going to bed hungry on a fruit farm
The minimum wage for farm workers is due to increase at the end of February. But seasonal worker Mercia Plaatjies doesn’t expect the increase to make much difference to her life.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 8 January 2015
We need a definition of a living wage
Instead of focusing on percentage increases, wage negotiations should be based on a clear definition of a living wage, write Trenton Elsley and George Mthethwa.
Trenton Elsley and George Mthethwa
Opinion | 6 January 2015
Workers lose out as construction sector expands
The construction sector has grown enormously in the last 20 years, but the old system of cheap labour still prevails, writes Eddie Cottle.
Eddie Cottle
Opinion | 5 January 2015
The silver lining to those dark clouds of global turmoil
As another year draws to a close, the advice usually attributed to the Italian revolutionary, Antonio Gramsci constantly comes to mind: exercise pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will. I must admit that it has become a great deal easier over recent months to exercise pessimism of the intellect — and increasingly difficult to exercise optimism of the will to do something about changing things, domestically or globally.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 December 2014
Hope Street carpenter shut down
When it is late at night and Cape Town’s streets are quiet, Mark Philander’s faint hammering at his pavement workshop on Hope Street can still be heard.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 18 December 2014
Minimum wage debate: the old cheap labour system will get us nowhere
The low wage argument is a red herring, argue Gilad Isaacs and Ben Fine in the latest contribution to the minimum wage debate.
Gilad Isaacs and Ben Fine
Opinion | 17 December 2014
Cape Town congress shows how Rana Plaza offers hope for workers’ rights
Rana Plaza was the deadliest factory disaster in history. On April 23 last year a shoddily built eight-storey building in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, collapsed.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 15 December 2014
R3.30 an hour: De Doorns child labour probed
The Department of Labour is investigating allegations of child labour on a grape and mushroom farm in the Hex Valley, outside De Doorns.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 15 December 2014