Seifsa Pursues outdated policies

Seifsa

persists with poor and

OUTDATED LABOUR ECONOMICS

Seifsa (representing 12 percent of employers in the Steel Industry) is about to launch a further attempt to have their 2017 – Industry hostile agreement with NUMSA extended to non-parties (88 percent of the Industry).

This is notwithstanding all indications that this undemocratic arrangement is bad for South Africa, bad for SMMEs and bad for industrialisation. In our newsletter ‘How absolutely absurd is this?‘, we have quoted what Gill Marcus (previous Governor of the Reserve Bank), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr. Lesetja Kganyago (current Governor of the Reserve Bank), the Institute of Race Relations and President Cyril Ramaphosa had to say about this SMME hostile arrangement.

Seifsa, who, at least as far as this matter is concerned, has proven themselves to be economically impaired, arrogant, insensitive and hostile towards Steel Industry SMMEs.

Seifsa persists on this path of destruction, notwithstanding the fact that:
• the cost of doing business for large and small businesses is completely different;
• the cost of labour, as a percentage of turnover, for a large business may be as low as 5 percent (or even less), while it may be as high as 50 percent (or even more) for a small business;
• the cost of business in the urban areas (where Seifsa’s support lies – mainly Johannesburg, but also Durban and Cape Town), is completely different to what it is in the decentralised or rural areas; and
• Seifsa has admitted, repeatedly, that their ‘one size fits all’ approach, obtained through extension, has caused immense hardship to the Industry.
How disingenuous is it that, even under these circumstances, Seifsa argues that they pursue the extension option in order to ‘level the playing field’; it just makes no economic sense. It does make sense though if it is accepted that all of this is done to preserve self interest at the cost of Steel Industry SMMEs.

During the State of the Nation address earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa:
• pointed out that the decline of our manufacturing capacity over many years, has deeply affected employment and exports;
• confirmed that job creation, especially for the youth, will be at the centre of the national agenda; and
• committed himself to re-industrialisation at a scale and at a pace that draws millions of jobs and to reduce the regulatory barriers (red tape) for small business.

Seifsa sabotages President Ramaphosa’s ideals of re-industrialisation

As far as red tape is concerned – in terms of obstacles of conducting business, not a single sector in South Africa matches the devastation caused by Seifsa (with the help of Numsa and the Department of Labour), over many years. Seifsa’s commitment to once again have their last agreement extended (despite all agreements extended since 2011 being set aside by the Labour Court), sabotages the President’s ideals in all respects.

Kind regards