The City of Cape Town will not be renewing the contracts of janitors employed to clean flush toilets in some informal settlements in the city.
Barbara Maragele
News | 19 January 2015
Hope Street’s pavement carpenter Mark Philander again had his material confiscated by officers from the City of Cape Town Law Enforcement this morning. Now, a local councillor has committed to linking Philander to the City’s informal traders unit in an attempt to find a public space for him to work legally and unhindered.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 13 January 2015
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
UCT's Deputy Vice-Chancellor responds to the article by Budlender and Lorenzen that criticised UCT's policy for next year on minimum wages.
Francis Petersen
Opinion | 10 December 2014
Farmworkers union Csaawu has launched an online crowd-funding campaign to save it from bankruptcy.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 8 December 2014
Josh Budlender and Johan Lorenzen argue that the reasons given by the University of Cape Town (UCT) for the minimum wage of outsourced workers in 2015 do not make sense.
Josh Budlender and Johan Lorenzen
Analysis | 8 December 2014
Nearly 17 years ago, sitting behind a slightly battered desk in Cape Town’s Salt River, Myrtle Witbooi told me that the dream of domestic workers being “treated like other workers” would not die. “We want a living wage and proper hours. It is a dream…but we will get there,” said the woman who, in Cape Town in 1965, convened the first organisational meeting of domestic workers.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 8 December 2014
A Robertson farm worker has laid a charge of assault against his employer after allegedly being “slapped and choked” on Wednesday morning. The attack, he said, was punishment for inviting a farm workers’ union leader onto the property. A case of assault is being investigated by the police.
Kimon de Greef
News | 4 December 2014