OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Bamu, Pamhidzai Hlezekhaya"

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Contracting work out to self employed workers : does South African law adequately recognise and regulate this practice?
(2011) Bamu, Pamhidzai Hlezekhaya; Kalula, Evance
Labour law is premised on the paradigm of a full-time, indefinite and bilateral employment relationship between employer and employee. Increasingly, this standard employment relationship model is being undermined by the proliferation of non-standard forms of work as employers seek greater labour market flexibility. These forms of work have been driven by three processes, namely casualisation (the engagement of workers on a fixed-term, casual or part-time basis), externalisation via commodification of the employment relationship (the engagement of workers in terms of a commercial contract, which excludes labour law from the relationship) and externalisation via intermediation (the use of intermediaries such as subcontractors). This study focuses on a work arrangement or practice referred to as contracting work out to self-employed workers. This involves contracting work out to individual workers who in turn employ other workers to assist them. The study considers the use of this practice in South Africa, where it emerged in the 1990s. It examines empirical research on the practice in the mining, clothing and construction sectors, and in relation to truck drivers. South African employers have argued that this practice advances government's small business and black economic empowerment policies.