GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT
Business sheds tears but inequality and exploitation are labour’s burdens
Clothing sector shows how unions, industry and the government can work together to stabilise and create jobs
The myth that the rising cost of labour in SA impedes economic growth and job creation is an age-old canard that has been recycled so often in our public discourse that it borders on an economic cliché. This argument is not ideologically neutral but is part of an incessant ideological and promotional work used by the proponents of neoliberalism to advance their agenda. This is part of an offensive directed at the workers to consolidate the power and hegemony of neoliberalism as the only possible economic and social order available to us. However, the facts tell a very different story when the sum of all wages paid to employees is calculated and the cost of employee benefits is collated and factored in. South African workers are among the most exploited in the world, and this is evident in the rising levels of inequality and the adversarial relations and industrial actions that regularly take place during the bargaining seasons. The most recent data on employment, the labour market a...
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