Business, labour agreements should be non-political

During September, two historical accords were signed between organised business and labour at the Western Cape. While acknowledging that cooperation agreements between business and labour are a definite step in the right direction, Western Cape provincial minister for economic development and tourism Alan Winde, said that agreements must be written in a non-political language and avoid one upmanship.

The first agreement dealt with cooperation between the Cape Chamber of Business and the Western Cape Branch of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu). According to this agreement, both sides would promote an economy that promoted investments and encouraged the fair treatment of workers through compliance with the law. The second agreement, signed last week between the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) and the clothing manufacturers resulted, in an agreement to reduce wages for new workers into the sector and to create at least 5,000 new jobs by March 2014.

Winde's main concern, however, was that the wording - especially in the Cape Chamber and the Cosatu agreement - was very lopsided in favour of labour and that there was absolutely no mention of the unemployed. "It is a very interesting agreement and the provincial government played a secondary role in it," he said. "We couldn't sign it because of some of the wording, but the interesting thing is that sooner or later business and labour would have to start talking about productivity and agreed levels of salary increases," Winde said.

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