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Workers Day
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) will today hold rallies across the country to mark Workers’ Day.
It says it will focus on calling on workers to unite against labour laws that do not serve them.
Meanwhile, COSATU president Zingiswa Losi is expected to deliver the keynote address at the labour federation’s main Workers’ Day rally at the Kees Taaljaard Stadium in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.
SAFTU says the proposed amendments to labour laws are a direct assault on the hard-won rights of workers.
SAFTU National Spokesperson Newton Masuku says they will march to the Labour Department to hand over a memorandum.
“Underpinning these proposals is the question of what they call the rigidity of the South African labour regime. So the argument is that the South African labour regime is too inflexible; it’s too rigid, which makes it difficult for employers to hire and fire at will, and therefore they do not have the confidence to invest so that they can grow the economy. So underlying the proposed amendment is an attempt to make it easy for bosses to hire and fire so that they can be able to be profitable, and we are opposed to that because necessarily it means you have to attack the hard-won gains of workers. The right not to be discriminated against, the right not to be fired without due process.”
Workers’ Day | A difficult time for public sector employees:
