Job loss spike puts legal body in a spin
Job losses are gripping the community as the CCMA gears up for business distress crisis
THE Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) is implementing an urgent action plan to manage the current upsurge of mass retrenchment notices.
CCMA revealed in the past two years, the overall increase in the number of small and large scale retrenchment referrals have already surpassed the cutbacks during the 2009/10 global economic crisis.
Job insecurity has reportedly ballooned with 23 231 work positions at stake in the first quarter of this financial year.
‘This equals 40% of the total number of referrals received last year, in a single quarter,’ said CCMA Director, Nerine Kahn.
Plan of action
The organisation has established a job insecurity crisis committee and task team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the national job insecurity situation with a specific focus on identifying high risk sectors for tailored intervention.
Social partners will be engaged to tackle technical aspects of addressing businesses in distress and job insecurity – this includes joint collaboration regarding early warning and intervention systems; preventing business closure and job losses; post retrenchment support and assisting businesses in distress to access enterprise support.
‘The revival of the Training Layoff Scheme has also been initiated to urgently rectify the current blockages experienced at the post CCMA stage of the process and to streamline the implementation so that assistance can be fast-tracked to enterprises in rescue,’ said Kahn
‘This plan is a part of the CCMA’s Job Security strategy, which is underpinned by three principles: leave no stone unturned in the quest to find alternatives to retrenchment; where retrenchments are unavoidable, do not allow any worker to ‘walk into the sunset’ without access to support mechanisms; and where business enterprises are in distress, facilitate lifeboat rescue to prevent business closures.’
