Labour, business can work cooperatively – Oliphant

While the relationship between labour and business in South Africa has weakened to one typified by adversarial stances and marred by violent strikes, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant remains confident that the industrial labour relations environment can recover to a point where both parties could work cooperatively to drive the country’s industrialisation agenda. Oliphant told the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa’s (Seifsa’s) Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba on Friday that business and labour’s ability to work together had been proven “many times” and had been reinforced through the introduction of the 1996 Labour Relations Act and several subsequent accords.