LETTER: Right to choose

The National Unions of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has predictably condemned the Free Market Foundation’s job seeker’s exemption certificate (JSEC), which would allow workers who so choose to be exempted from labour laws.

The denigration of the certificate is equivalent to criticising the right to choose itself, and thereby human agency. It must be clarified that those who oppose it, such as Numsa, believe they can manage individuals’ lives better than the individuals themselves. The hubris!

It is unfortunate that the failures of the state are so often attributed to the phantom of “neoliberalism”. The state enacts laws that increase the cost of manufacturing goods in SA, and then neoliberalism is held accountable. The state’s excessive spending leads to a deficit, forcing it to reduce spending to sustain itself, and once again neoliberalism is the target of blame.

And, of course, the state prohibits employers and employees from finding one another on their own terms, and then our record unemployment is said to be the fault of neoliberalism.

Perhaps the JSEC would be more palatable to Numsa if it was aware, as some among them certainly are, that economies such as China that dominate manufacturing globally, have banned the right to strike, and collective bargaining is virtually nonexistent. Not to mention the absence of minimum wages.

This is by no means a compliment to the repressive Chinese Communist Party regime. Instead, it is meant to highlight that even in one of the world’s most interventionist states, there is a recognition of the importance of having a dynamic labour market free from excessive regulation.

Differing shades of state interventionism through legislative regulation have been tried in SA. What the Free Market Foundation offers is a solution rooted in recognising every person’s agency and dignity and allowing them to choose to accept the (euphemistic) “protection” of these laws or not. Choice can never be unjust.

Zakhele Mthembu
Policy officer, Free Market Foundation

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