Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council

Maraire, Wesley

Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council

Master Thesis

2015

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Institute of Development and Labour Law

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Abstract

The South African clothing industry has shed over 70 000 jobs in the last decade. This has given rise to huge debate in the industry and academia about the role of the bargaining council in regulating the industry as well as other factors such as trade liberalisation that are causing the industry to shrink. This study explores attitudes held by formal and informal clothing workers toward the regulatory environment and possible alternatives to current regulation by the bargaining council. The research aimed to explore worker understanding of the regulatory environment, in particular the wages versus job-security trade-off; to find out whether workers are aware of alternatives to the current wage model, such as performance-based incentive pay; to explore the attitudes workers hold toward home-based informal factories; and to assess the attitudes of workers to worker cooperatives. Using semi- structured face-to-face interviews, 24 respondents (ten formal and 14 informal workers) were selected to participate in an attitude survey that explored their feelings across attitudinal classes - cognitive, affective, and behavioural, using the non-probability purposive sampling technique. Research findings show that both sets of workers generally had a very poor understanding of the industry's regulatory environment. After receiving brief explanations of alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council, the workers understood them cognitively and attitudes varied between the two groups. All workers were generally against performance-based incentive pay because it requires them to place too much trust in employers. Informal work was viewed as a viable alternative although formal workers could not conceive joining informal firms. Both sets of workers expressed favour towards worker co-operatives, which have the advantage of changing the working relationship from manager and worker to worker as owner, thus empowering workers. All workers, however, demonstrated overall awareness of the pressures facing the clothing industry, such as those caused by cheap Chinese imports. The evidence is however, not sufficient to arrive at a set of conclusions regarding alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council.

Keywords

Labour Law

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