In South Africa, labour has played a central role in shaping the transition to democracy. It remained an open question as to whether labour could sustain it’s involvement during the period of consolidation after the first democratic elections. As was evident in other emerging democracies, economic liberalization often led to stagnation and high costs being imposed on workers, while weakening the state. South African trade unions thus faced formidable problems as they had to respond to rapid economic and industrial change. While being stubborn, South African trade unions remain adaptable enough to survive and grow into the 21st Century. In this dissertation, the writer examines the relevance of trade unions in contemporary South Africa and how they are coming to terms with the deregulated labour market, and the question of globalisation. We look at the emergence of new forms of collective bargaining, the growth of trade unions as partners in a changing workplace and the different ways trade unions are modernising themselves to attract new members. Labour when used as a collective force is capable of shaping democratization through the strategic use of power. Labour has the potential , through participation in negotiated compromises, to ensure that the costs of adjustments are not borne by workers alone. To this end, the South African trade union movement has developed innovative strategies and institutions.

Section 29(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (the Constitution) guarantees the right to a basic education, including a basic adult education and further education. In realising this right, the State is obliged to provide financial and human resources in a manner that will transform society as a whole and deliver a better life for all citizens. The human resources in the main refer to educators. Education is one of key priorities of the present government to the extent that President Zuma has instructed that a presidential commission be established to look into the conditions of service of public servants and in particular that of educators. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has proposed the Decent Work Country Programmes to help countries align their policies with the international goal of the achievement of Decent Work for all. South Africa has done a lot of work in this regard; however the main challenge remains with the implementation and acceptance of such policies by the major stakeholders especially the trade unions. This treatise investigates the impact of the Decent Work Agenda (DWA) on the job security and provisioning of educators in South Africa. It also explores the conditions of service of temporary educators and those educators who are teaching in the rural areas under extremely difficult conditions in comparison with their counterparts in urban areas. This treatise also examines the status of social dialogue in the education sector and the impact of same on collective bargaining. This treatise recommends that the utilisation of the services of temporary educators need to be regulated to address the continuous extension of temporary contracts that is impacting negatively on job security. It also suggests that urgent measures in the form of norms and standards be determined to improve the working conditions of educators who are teaching in rural areas under very difficult circumstances.

There is a general conformity in employment discourses that informal employment is not welcomed in the employment circles regardless of how well marketed it could be. The government of South Africa on its state owned projects in the construction industry introduced policies that promoted local labour procurement of employees a process that has resulted with heavy contestations due to its application. This study examines the impact of local labour procurement policy on locally recruited employees and those who got retrenched purely for the purpose of accommodating the policy requirement. This is done through the use of Kusile power station as a case study. It adopts qualitative research approach using interviews and document analysis. The study also examines this policy in conjunction with the current labour legislation and the effects it has on the existing labour and the proposed amendment labour bills. It also examines the motive behind the introduction of the policy and who has benefited from it. However the findings reveal that there is inconsistence in the application of the policy. The purpose why the policy was introduced is to reduce unemployment poverty in the areas where these projects are being constructed. Further also the study reveals that in as much as the policy promotes informal employment, this type of informal employment is different from the commonly well-known informal employment purely on the aspect of remuneration and benefits compared to the common one.

The Public Service is service delivery driven, and is dependent on the quality, skill and performance of the employees to carry through its business. It is therefore imperative that the policies and systems pertaining to human capital are effectively and efficiently managed. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act regulates the basic conditions of employment and states that employees’ may be absent from duty due to illness. The public sector uses the Determination on the Leave of Absence in the Public Service as a tool to regulate leave in the public sector. The Determination provides employees with 36 paid sick days to be utilised by an employee within a three-year cycle. In cases where an employee has exhausted the sick leave, the employer may grant Temporary Incapacity Leave, which is discretional. The Public Service Commission has a constitutional obligation to monitor the performance of the public sector and produce reports covering the human resources management practices. With regards to the management of leave in the public sector, the reports reveal the abuse of sick leave by employees, non-compliance and the in-effective management. The Department of Public Service and Administration then developed the PILIR as a guide to manage and administer sick and incapacity leave in the public sector. This treatise therefore, discusses the regulation of sick and incapacity leave in the public sector and investigates the extent to which the applicable legislative framework is effective. The discussion uses the Labour Court judgment in the matter between The Public Service Association & Others versus the PSCBC & Others as reference, and further evaluates the judicial jurisprudence to demonstrate the extent of contentions of the private sector employers by the employees. Furthermore, this treatise seeks to evaluate the extent of similarities or differences of the practices both the private sector and the municipalities. In conclusion, the treatise makes recommendations on the best practices that can be adopted by the public sector to turn the situation around.

M.A. (Sociology) / Over the past few decades, South African institutions have responded to a prevailing human rights discourse and pressures from the state and labour unions to put a range of key policies in place. Amongst these, family-friendly policies have gained acceptance and prominence. This study explores and analyses the use of family-friendly policies in a major South African bank and establishes reasons why bank staff do and do not make use of such policies, as well as the ways in which the available policies cater for their particular needs. The research probes the experiences of both male and female employees within this South African bank, the challenges that they face and the agency that they display in balancing their work and family lives by making use of the family-friendly policies within the institution. In-depth qualitative interviews and a documentary study of existing policy are the main methods of the study. The sample was comprised of 18 participants with children of 12 years and younger, two childless participants and one union representative. The final analysis reveals that, in general, the participants were reasonably content with the policies that the bank provides and viewed them as adequate. However, they were of the view that more benefits should be forthcoming and that there should be greater consistency in the application of policies. They also raised the inability of staff to discuss personal issues affecting their work efforts with management. Weber suggested that employees in large-scale bureaucracies accept the legal authority of the institution – its rules, functions and hierarchies. The bank as a bureaucracy does indeed frame employees’ social action; however, in present-day South Africa, policy, unlike being what Weber envisaged, is humanising and enabling, rather than constraining, and bank employees are able to exercise their autonomy to make policy work in their favour.

The central concern of this study is to analyse how the pattern of development in South Africa has influenced the long term growth of productive employment in the economy. The approach adopted is to appply a model of economic dualism to the South African case. Chapter 1, p. 1.

The research problem in this study was to analyse how the new constitutional, legal and political arrangements have influenced public policy-making in the department of labour with specific reference to the Employment Equity Act. To achieve this objective a theory for analysing policy–making process was presented. Corporatist theory is based on the following assumptions: Public policy is shaped by interaction between the state and interest groups. The state licences behaviour of interested organizations by attributing public status to them Policy-making is based on interest groups bargaining across a broad range of issues. The groups are functionally interdependent to enhance social stability. The groups use consensus in making decisions. Decision-making is centralised, it is done by leaders. The groups are bureaucratic in organization. The groups must be recorgnised by the state so that they can be allowed representation. The research questions that arise are: (1) Who sets the agenda for policy formulation? (2) How is the policy formulated? (3) how are the decisions taken? (4) How is the policy implemented? (5) How is the policy monitored? The objective of this study analyse how constitutional, legal and political changes have influenced public policy formulation in the Department of Labour with specific reference to the Employment Equity Act. Policy–making processes in the South African arena and factors that led to the promulgation of Employment Equity Act were discussed. This study was a qualitative design. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of five participants who were interviewed. All interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data was analysed as described by Rubin and Rubin (1995:260) The result negated some of the assumptions of corporatist theory and others concurred with the theory. The findings of the study revealed that policy formulation in the Department of Labour is as a result of constitutional, and international conventions obligations. The findings further revealed that policy-information is institutionalised and there are competing interests due to divergent ideological orientations, different social backgrounds; racial differences; different; political beliefs; different class background; different historical backgrounds, and gender differences. (v) The formulation of the act was also characterised by advocacy, adversarism, stereotyping, alliances and consensus. These organisations. were bureaucratic and decisions were centralised. This study recommended a theory and the theory postulates that “public policy is the product of the social, economic, political, cultural, technolergical, and natural conditions of a given society in a particular epoch or period in the historical development of the particular nation or society and is influenced by dominant national and international forces and these influences may be cultural, economically, social, politically, technological, and type and system of government.

Unemployment is one of the greatest and most complex challenges facing South Africa. Just like most developing countries, South Africa has been using the fiscal policy framework as a tool to alleviate the high rates of unemployment. This study examined the impact of fiscal policy on unemployment in South Africa. The study used annual time series data for the period 1980 to 2010. A vector error correction model was used to determine the effects of fiscal policy aggregates on unemployment in South Africa. The fiscal policy aggregates considered in this study were government investment expenditure, government consumption expenditure and tax. Results from this study revealed that government consumption expenditure and tax have a positive impact on unemployment while government investment expenditure negatively affects unemployment in South Africa. Policy recommendations were made using these results.

The Glen Grey Act was promulgated in August 1894. The main provisions of the Act were for the survey into individual allotments of land held tribally and for a system of local self-government. Described by its originator, C.J. Rhodes, as a 'Bill for Africa, it was first applied to the district of Glen Grey and subsequently extended (in a piece-meal fashion) to a number of districts in the Transkei. The Act was introduced at a crucial stage in South Africa's history. During this period the country stood poised on the threshhold of a significant and far-reaching transformation. The South Africa of 'old', predominantly agricultural and rural was giving way to a 'new' South Africa, modern and industrial. At the centre of this development was the mineral discoveries of the 1860s and 1880s. The period of colonial conquest had also virtually been completed. Most of the hitherto independent African chiefdoms had either been broken up or were under European control. The most urgent problem which now faced the new rulers was devising a policy to govern the millions of black people over whom they had assumed responsibility. Of crucial concern was the creation of working class to minister to the needs of the developing economy. This task was made all the more difficult by the divisions which existed among the ruling groups at the time. To all intents and purposes the country was made up of essentially four independent and autonomous regions. Although the economic changes which were taking place would hasten the unification of the country, until that happened it was well-nigh impossible for a uniform 'native policy' to take shape. The inevitable consequence was the emergence of a number of regional responses to what was essentially a country-wide issue. As the unification of South Africa drew closer however these different regional responses began to vie with each other for supremacy at a national level. The Glen Grey policy then was the response of the Cape to the changes which were taking place in the country. As such, it drew much of its inspiration from the traditions which had developed in the Cape Colony. Its initiators did not however view it as only a regional policy. For them it had applicability to the whole country. It was therefore to be expected that they would attempt to 'sell' their policy to the rest of the country. In the end however it won few adherents outside of the Cape Colony and when Union became an established fact it bowed out to a policy favoured largely by the northern provinces. To be sure the Glen Grey system did linger on for a while in those districts where it had first been applied but it would not be long before it was to fall into official disapproval. While the Glen Grey Act was ushered in with much fanfare and vaunted expectations, its demise was silent and ignominous. The grandiose course which it had charted for the taking-in-hand of the 'native question' came to naught, as did the profound and far-reaching changes which it was believed the policy would inaugurate. The origins of this policy, its implementation and actual working, and the reasons why in the end it foundered and was abandoned will be the main themes of this thesis.

Work is a key component of people's lives and most people aspire to have work that is sufficient to provide a living wage so as to lift them out of poverty and social exclusion and also that is secure enough to guarantee a decent livelihood. The Decent Work Agenda has gained much popularity in recent years and proposes an approach to development that emphasizes fair and sustainable working opportunities that include principles of rights at work, social protection and social dialogue. Various issues have been raised in this study. Firstly, the decent work concept needs to be understood comprehensively as there is misconception about what the concept implies and what it can achieve. Secondly, it is acknowledged that there are huge decent work deficits in South Africa especially in the informal sector which impede on the advancement of people‟s conditions of living, cause people to live lives of poverty as well as deprive people of a life of dignity. This is despite decent work having a solid basis in labour legislation and also South Africa being bound by international law and principles concerning decent work. The study observes that reform in labour legislation is recommended to help overcome the decent work deficits. The ILO has proposed the Decent Work Country Programmes to help countries align their economic development goals with the international goal of the achievement of Decent Work for all. South Africa also has its own solutions such as the New Growth Path as well as other policies. The main issue however is how these policies can be implemented effectively and how decent work can be achieved against a backdrop of the socio – economic challenges that South Africa faces.