The sector continues to face many risks and uncertainties such as the return of loadshedding, bottlenecks at Transnet’s sprawling logistics infrastructure and policy uncertainty
ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections. Confidence in South Africa is at a record low. And yet, the sectors recovery is crucial for the country’s economic prospects, as it has the potential to boost productivity gains for the economy, exports,
investment, innovation and job creation. The number of ever-increasing unemployed people should instill a sense of urgency into fixing our economy. Failing that, we run the risk of entrenching the kind of poverty that can upend the social compact that underpins
our democracy.
Times are tough in the country now. The news seems relentlessly depressing. Intense anger grows because so many of the problems closing businesses and killing jobs could
have been avoided. Our disillusionment with the state of our country, industry and the future is normal, but once that’s registered, leaders across the board must find it within themselves to move the conversation beyond the doom loop.
Employers and trade unions at a Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) meeting on
Tuesday, 30 January signed a landmark process or relationship agreement giving
the green light for the commencement of the 2024 round of wage and conditions of employment negotiations under a set of rules, guidelines and guiding principles that to date have been absent from our engagements.
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Starting is easy, staying the course tests one’s mettle, finding common ground and closing the deal is a reflection of having found common purpose. But at the
heart of the matter are the basis and nature of industrial relations in SA, which by definition place capital and labour permanently on opposite sides as adversaries.
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In collective bargaining, only when the parties find sufficient intersections of common inputs to a solution to be generated is a deal possible. In a traditionally
adversarial setting and particularly when the going gets tough and faced with the prospect of negotiations completely unravelling, the side that takes the first step towards the middle is most likely to get the best deal; if there is a middle.
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