Moses Mdewu Mackay
15 July 2008
Two of the biggest umbrella bodies in the clothing and motor industries have denied allegations that they retrench workers without consulting with unions first.
The Cape Clothing Association's executive director Johann Baard says it complies with the Labour Relations Act when it retrenches workers in the clothing and textile industry.
The industry once again finds itself in a bind as the consumer boom of the past few years has been replaced by a downward turn.
Last week the association said the slowdown had already led to thousands of job losses and warned of many more as businesses fight for their survival. The industry is one of the biggest in the province and employs about 170 000 workers.
The Labour Relations Act stipulates that companies must consult trade unions if they intend to retrench workers.
Baard said he advised their members to reconsider and negotiate in good faith and take suggestions from the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) in an attempt to fight retrenchments.
Baard has denied that their members (companies) only consult Sactwu once they have already taken the decision to retrench workers.
He said members of the association were negotiating in "good faith" with the union and were exploring measures and other alternative proposals to ensure they minimised retrenchments.
Jeff Osborne, chief executive of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), said his organisation was not directly involved with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and this was the direct responsibility of member companies.
He said companies were complying with the LRA and were consulting the union when they were going to retrench workers.
The RMI and Numsa were jointly exploring cost-cutting measures and retrenchments were the last resort.
Numsa provincial organiser Clement Herandien said although companies were complying with the LRA, regarding retrenchments, union officials were still excluded from the decision-making process.
As a result it was very difficult for Numsa to resolve the problem, he said.
Asked whether unions had a strong case against the companies, Herandien said it was seldom that such cases were referred to the labour court.
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