20100412
BUSINESS DAY

Johannesburg — SOCIAL dialogue was at the centre of employment creation for economies that were recovering from the global recession, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said at the African Employers conference in Johannesburg on Friday.

The conference, attended by labour employer representatives across Africa, was supposed to develop an action plan for job creation and employment in Africa to be presented to a Group of Twenty (G-20) labour ministers' summit on April 19.

Delegates recognised faults in their labour markets and said there was a need for greater productivity, but few concrete measures were declared that could rectify the problems. "If there is one lesson I want to take to the G-20 summit it is the importance of social dialogue in policy formulation and therefore the recovery of our economies from the recession," Mdladlana said.

Despite this call for social dialogue between all labour players, unions were severely underrepresented at the conference, even if it was primarily organised to be a business-government event. Unions had declined invitations to attend, said Business Unity SA (Busa) vice-president Mthunzi Mdwaba, who is also deputy CEO of Kelly Group.

The event was organised by the International Organisation of Employers, the Pan-African Employers' Confederation, the International Labour Organisation and Busa.

Delegates concluded they should follow seven drivers of economic growth that, according to the CEO of Business New Zealand, Phil O'Reilly, New Zealand had "used for decades with general success".

These included building leadership and management skills, creating productive workplace cultures, promoting innovation and technology, investing in people and skills, organising workers, creating networks and collaborations between labour, government and business, and "measuring what matters".

More than R5bn had been set aside to help workers who lost their jobs during the recession, Mdladlana said. Unemployment Insurance Fund contributions of R42bn and R23bn from the Compensation Fund would be invested with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in private sector and government projects. The PIC would report back to the Department of Labour on the number of jobs it created.