Over 940 000 working days lost to protests
Most of the work stoppages were due to wages, bonus and other compensation demands.
SOUTH AFRICA has lost 946 323 working days due to strikes. That’s according to the Department of Labour’s acting director general, Vuyo Mafata, who released the Industrial Action Report for 2016, which shows that the South African labour market lost a total of 946 323 working days as a result of 122 work stoppages.
This represents a 4.7 per cent increase in working days lost in 2016 compared to 903 921 days in 2015.
Launching the report, Mafata said most of the work stoppages were due to wages, bonus and other compensation demands.
“In term of wages lost, the South African labour economy lost approximately R161-million due to work stoppages in 2016 compared to R116 million in 2015,” he said.
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Mafata said the strike information analysed is based on the information supplied by employers in the Labour Relations Act (LRA) forms after strike incidents ended in workplaces.
“The strike report remains a useful piece of up-to-date information for various stakeholders including government departments, unions, employers, business, international organisations, research institutes, NGOs and students,” Mafata said.
Mafata said the report still emphasises the Labour Minister’s concerns around the logic of pursuing strike action to the point where it damages workers’ interests.
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