The legal profession: Transformation and skills

It is well known that South Africa has a serious skills shortage. The new skills development dispensation introduced by the government in 1998, underpinned by the Skills Development Act, appears to have made little inroad into the shortage. The latest macroeconomic growth strategy, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (Asgisa), has focused attention on skills, making the elimination of the shortage a priority in order to achieve the 6 per cent economic growth rate that it has set as a target for the country in order to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014

A study of changes and continuities in the organization and regulation of work with an empirical examination of the South African and Lesotho clothing/retail value chain.

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.The empirical focus of the thesis is the clothing and retail segments of the local and regional value chains in parts of Southern African that comprise different geographical and regulatory zones. Secondary literature on the clothing and retail sectors was examined, but the main research method was interviews with senior managers of retailers, clothing manufacturers, design houses, cut, make and trim (CMT) operations, as well as key informants. The interviews focused on understanding the relationships that link different stages of clothing production with the retail sector

Where is management going? Employer strategies with regard to worker participation and work-place forums

No Abstrac

The National Credit Act: Will it increase access to credit for small and micro enterprises?

No Abstrac

Why do employers bargain at particular levels? : a longitudinal case study of Western Cape Clothing Employers' perceptions and behaviour with regard to levels of collective bargaining, 1991-1995

Bibliography: leaves 181-188.This dissertation examines a sample of Western Cape' clothing employers' perceptions with regard to different levels of collective bargaining The examination takes place at two points in time: in 1991, when bargaining ;took place at the regional level, and in 1995, when bargaining was taking place at the national level. The change in the level at which bargaining took place between these years allows for a retrospective examination of the reasons why employers agreed to engage in national bargaining. The objective of the research was to determine, from the perspective of employers' preferences, why collective bargaining comes to be situated at a particular level. The study relies primarily on a qualitative research method, namely in-depth interviews with employers. The focus is therefore on the subjective expression of interests and preferences with regard to alternative levels of bargaining, and the way in which employers make decisions about this issue. This approach differs from most other attempts to explain the determination of bargaining levels. Rather than attributing preferences to employers through an examination of the relationship between existing bargaining structures and factors such as industrial structure, trade union density, and the statutory framework for collective bargaining, the methodology used for this dissertation focusses on the role of employers as social actors that mediate between such environmental factors in developing their preferences for a particular level of bargaining. Particular emphasis is placed on the politics of collective decision-making by employers as an explanatory variable in the determination of the level of bargaining

Are trade unions and NGOs leveraging social codes to improve working conditions? A study of two locally developed codes in the South African fruit and wine farming sectors

The paper explores one aspect of the food security question, namely the livelihoods of farmworkers, which ultimately speaks to the sustainability of farms and the provision of food. It focuses on the emergence of locally made private social codes (Wine and Agricultural Ethical Trade Association – WIETA, and Sustainability Initiative of South Africa – SIZA) in the Western Cape fruit and wine sectors and how compliance with such codes has increasingly become a requirement to export to certain markets (being an aspect of vertical governance in the fruit and wine value chains). Many standards in private social codes duplicate rights in national legislation, but some standards improve on statutory rights and certain enabling standards that offer leveraging opportunities to worker organisations to further improve wages and working conditions. Such leveraging constitutes a form of horizontal governance of the fruit and wine value chains. The paper analyses key sections of the two locally made social codes against the Fairtrade code and Sectoral Determination 13 (SD13). The analysis indicates where the codes improve on SD13 and how they compare to the Fairtrade code, which is generally seen to offer the best enabling standards for workers. The paper then presents the results of empirical research on the extent to which worker organisations – that is, trade unions and labour-oriented non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – have leveraged relevant standards to effect improvements for workers. The role of the state in facilitating such leveraging is also explored. The paper finds that, in general, worker organisations have little knowledge of the WIETA and SIZA codes and hardly any attempts have been made to leverage the codes. The only contestation of the codes that had a significant impact was from an actor outside the sector and country, namely the documentary film-maker who produced Bitter Grapes. The paper questions why worker organisations have made so little of the codes. The low capacity of such organisations is one explanation, but these organisations are also disenchanted with the codes because WIETA’s and SIZA’s sanctioning of non-compliance has been insufficient

The State of Collective Bargaining in South Africa: An Empirical and Conceptual Study of Collective Bargaining

The research examines the current state of collective bargaining, the nature of existing bargaining structures, alternative models that have developed, and the problems being experienced in the current system

Understanding regional value chains through the interaction of public and private governance: Insights from Southern Africa’s apparel sector

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2019-08-31, rev-recd 2020-08-06, accepted 2020-08-21, registration 2020-08-25, pub-electronic 2020-09-23, online 2020-09-23, pub-print 2021-09Publication status: PublishedAbstract: Regional value chains (RVCs) and South–South trade are increasingly considered key features of 21st-century globalisation. This article investigates how RVCs are shaped by the interaction of private and public governance. It evaluates how this interaction unfolded in Southern Africa’s apparel RVCs, exploring trade, investment and labour regimes across three levels of analysis: national, regional, and global. The paper draws on trade data, secondary literature, and interviews with suppliers and institutions in Eswatini and Lesotho (the largest exporters to the region), and lead firms in South Africa (the largest regional importer). The findings underline the critical role of public governance in shaping retailers’ and suppliers’ participation in RVCs through: (i) regional ‘trade regimes’ protecting regional exporters from global competitors, and recent shifts in global trade regimes; (ii) national and regional ‘investment regimes’ facilitating investment flows from South Africa to Lesotho and Eswatini, and the more recent shift of US-oriented suppliers towards regional markets; and (iii) ‘labour regimes’, including lower wages, less comprehensive labour legislation and weaker trade unions in Lesotho and Eswatini compared to South Africa. The article concludes by considering the policy implications of the interaction of private and public governance for existing and future RVCs in Sub-Saharan Africa

Conditions of Employment and Small Business: Coverage, Compliance and Exemptions

This Policy Brief is based on DPRU Working Paper 06/106, Conditions of Employment and Small Business: Coverage, Compliance and Exemptions by Shane Godfrey, Johann Maree and Jan Theron

Vocational Education and Training in Tanzania and Zimbabwe in the Context of Economic Reform

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,