Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0321/03210.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 20KB | 302 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03210}
$Pretitle{293}
$Title{South Africa
Chapter 3E.   Labor}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald P. Whitaker}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{black
white
development
government
south
homelands
workers
percent
blacks
homeland}
$Date{1980}
$Log{Mining Quarters*0321002.scf
}
Country:     South Africa
Book:        South Africa, A Country Study
Author:      Donald P. Whitaker
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1980

Chapter 3E.   Labor

     Although economic development in South Africa has become increasingly
dependent on Black labor, government legislation to prevent permanent Black
settlement within areas reserved for Whites has in essence treated all Black
laborers in those areas as members of a "temporary" work force. In 1980 this
work force consisted of Blacks with residential rights in the Black urban
townships, workers commuting from homes in nearby homeland areas, migrant
workers from more distant homeland areas, and migrants from foreign countries.
By law only White, Asian, and Coloured workers comprised the permanent work
force of the White area, which also encompassed the group areas of the Asians
and Coloureds. But the long-term continuity of Black service with White
employers and the ever-growing need of the latter for a stable labor force had
led the government to recognize the permanence of urban-domiciled Blacks (see
Apartheid and Its Evolution, ch. 2). In the late 1970s about 43 percent of all
Black male workers in the White area and one-third of those in urban areas
were actually migrants under the government's definition of the term.

     Information on the economically active population and employment in
South Africa has been obscured by the exclusion from the country's statistics
of data for Transkei, Bophuthatswana, and Venda after those three Black
homelands were declared to be "independent states" in 1976, 1977, and 1979,
respectively. Since independence their workers have not been regarded as
domestic elements of the South African economy. At the end of 1975 the
country's economically active labor force was estimated at almost 9.8 million,
of which Blacks constituted 71.7 percent, Whites 17.9 percent, Coloureds 8.1
percent, and Asians 2.3 percent. More than 45 percent of the Black labor
force was located in White urban areas. Another 25 percent was in the White
rural areas. The remainder (less than 30 percent) comprised the rural labor
force of the Black homelands. Census data for 1970 showed that Whites and
Asians worked predominantly in the urban centers, as did well over 80 percent
of the Coloured economically active group. Employment distribution of the
different racial groups by industrial division was related in part to the size
and kind of work force needed and in part to its availability. Blacks
constituted an absolute majority of workers in mining, manufacturing, and
construction. Whites were the largest number in banking, and White and Black
employees were relatively equal in numbers in some sectors such as retail and
wholesale trade. Whites constituted a majority of post office workers, the
result of government policies favoring White employees (see table 21,
Appendix).

     Wide wage differentials existed between White workers and those of the
other racial groups. Structurally this was explained by the occupational
distribution of the work force. Whites, who held most of the skilled jobs, had
average wages substantially higher than those of Asians and Coloureds, who
occupied mostly intermediate skilled and semiskilled positions. The average
wages of Asians and Coloureds, in turn, were in general considerably higher
than those of Blacks, large numbers of whom held ordinarily low-paying,
unskilled jobs (see table 22, Appendix). This structural pattern was rooted in
apartheid policies that gave rise to severe discrimination in job
opportunities and access to employment-more so for the Black work force than
for Asians and Coloureds. The annual earnings of the Black, Asian, and
Coloured workers in real terms improved between 1970 and 1979. During the nine
years White real wages showed no increase, whereas those for Blacks rose at an
average annual rate of 5.6 percent, for Coloureds at 1.3 percent, and for
Asians at 3.6 percent. During the period Black wages increased from 20 to 29
percent of total wages, those for Coloureds from 7.3 to 7.9 percent, and for
Asians from 2.5 to 3.1 percent. White wages meanwhile, declined from 70 to 60
percent of total annual wages paid to workers in the nonagricultural sectors.
The discrepancy in actual wages, however, remained great. As of early 1980 in
mining, Black wages were only about 16 percent of White wages, in
manufacturing about 23 percent, and in construction under 20 percent. In 1970
a gap of R 2,769 existed between the average White wage of R 3,247 and average
Black wage of R 478. In 1979 the gap had increased to R 6,006-the White average
wage being R 7,895, and that for Blacks R 1,889.

     The proportionally low occupational status of the Black labor force
related directly to Nationalist government policies enunciated in the early
1950s. These were based on the contention that Black workers had no place in
the White area beyond certain work levels. As a result only limited Black
training facilities were made available because, according to government
policy, the place for Black vocational education was in the homelands. As the
economy expanded and the supply of skilled White workers dried up during the
1970s, the business community put increasing pressure on the government to
change its policies. In 1977 the Commission of Inquiry into Labor Legislation,
popularly known as the Wiehahn Commission, was appointed to investigate and
make recommendations with respect to existing labor laws in the commercial and
manufacturing sectors. (The mining sector was subsequently added.) In 1979,
upon the commission's recommendation, the long-standing statutory reservation
of certain jobs for Whites was abolished, and by the end of 1980 only two
reservations remained in force, both of which were to be phased out. In June
1980 the government accepted a further recommendation that Black apprentices
be trained in the White urban areas to qualify as certified skilled artisans.
The early response was quite small, and the government then announced special
tax incentives for employers who trained Black apprentices. But major
obstacles to rapid entry of Blacks into the artisan class still remained in
1980. One hindrance was the continuing negative attitude of White artisan
labor unions toward the training of Blacks. But most important were the
inadequate education received in the basically inferior Black primary school
system and the economic circumstances that prevented Blacks from attaining the
eight years of education required for selection for apprenticeship (see
Education, ch. 2).

     Since its earliest history labor unionism in South Africa has borne a
racial imprint. The first craft unions set up in the 1880s by immigrants from
Britain consisted of skilled White workers whose self-interests gradually
became identified with preventing the use of Blacks, Coloureds, and Asians in
any but unskilled jobs. Racial attitudes were reflected in the first
Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924, the new Industrial Conciliation Act of
1956, and were an important aspect of the Industrial Conciliation Amendment
Act of 1979. The first two acts excluded Blacks from direct participation in
legal unions whose members were limited to Whites and Coloureds (the latter
defined as persons neither White nor Black). At the same time, agreements
reached through collective bargaining could be applied by government order to
all employees in an industry, thus subjecting Black workers to their
provisions without representation and to the penal sanctions that were
included. The 1924 act did not specify racial segregation of unions, but this
provision was included in the 1956 measure, although the government was never
able to effect comp