Johannesburg — THE Confederation of South African Workers' Unions (Consawu) says it is going to force its way into the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) through court action and by taking the matter up with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Consawu wants to become a member of Nedlac, the negotiating chamber for government, labour and business, because it wants more labour representation in the council. It says that without its participation, Nedlac will remain a "sham exercise" as one of the major labour partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), formulates policy with the African National Congress outside the council instead of in it.

Consawu has been trying to become a member of Nedlac for years. Cosatu and the Federation of Unions of South Africa oppose this, saying it does not have the 300000 members required to join Nedlac. Consawu says this threshold was decided only later.

Consawu general secretary Khulile Nkushu- bana said in Pretoria yesterday that the union federations were finalising the documentation, and would apply for a court date.

Meanwhile, Consawu and its affiliate trade union, Solidarity, will be embarking on a campaign in the next three months to encourage the government to ratify more ILO conventions. To date, SA has ratified 23 of the ILO's 187 conventions.

Zimbabwe, which is considered to be far behind SA when it comes to workers' rights, has ratified 26 conventions.

Solidarity general secretary Flip Buys said it was a shame that SA had ratified only 23 conventions, considering that Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana was the chairman of the ILO, and Ebrahim Patel, general secretary of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union, served on the organisation's governing body.