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| Title: | Adversarial Participation and Antagonistic Cooperation? Workplace Forums, Employee Participation and Lean Production |
| Author: | Klerck, Gilton |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Periodical: | Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |
| Issue: | 40 |
| Pages: | 1-35 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | labour relations workers' participation labour law Labor and Employment Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
| External link: | https://d.lib.msu.edu/tran/376/OBJ/download |
| Abstract: | The Labour Relations Act of 1995 (LRA) reflects the attempt to set in place a labour relations regime in South Africa without parallel in the developing world: balancing global competitiveness with a stable and redistributive growth path. High levels of political mobilization and economic inequalities, however, exacerbate tensions between strengthening labour and making firms more competitive. The limits and possibilities of employee participation are conditioned by the power relations underlying civil society and the State. The struggle around the structure of labour relations takes place within a context of globalization of production. Solidarity among workers is not only under threat from the individualism of management strategies, but also from concerted efforts by the State and employers to reconstitute the relationship between management and workers, reflecting a fictitious identity of interests of employers and workers. The provisions on workplace forums in the LRA are geared towards consensus and cooperation, moving away from militancy of trade union structures and adversarial tactics. Participatory structures such as WPFs are presented as the key to meeting the challenges of international competitiveness. However, the idea of a collaborative or consensual path to greater competitiveness and social equality is not only unrealistic, but also completely divorced from the realities of workplace relations in South Africa. A more likely scenario is the uneasy coexistence of adversarial participation and antagonistic cooperation. Bibliogr., notes. |
