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Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council
The South African clothing industry has shed over 70 000 jobs in the last decade. This has given rise to huge debate in the industry and academia about the role of the bargaining council in regulating the industry as well as other factors such as trade liberalisation that are causing the industry to...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Institute of Development and Labour Law
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613237889990656 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Maraire, Wesley |
| author2 | Godfrey, Shane |
| author_browse | Godfrey, Shane Maraire, Wesley |
| author_facet | Godfrey, Shane Maraire, Wesley |
| author_sort | Maraire, Wesley |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The South African clothing industry has shed over 70 000 jobs in the last decade. This has given rise to huge debate in the industry and academia about the role of the bargaining council in regulating the industry as well as other factors such as trade liberalisation that are causing the industry to shrink. This study explores attitudes held by formal and informal clothing workers toward the regulatory environment and possible alternatives to current regulation by the bargaining council. The research aimed to explore worker understanding of the regulatory environment, in particular the wages versus job-security trade-off; to find out whether workers are aware of alternatives to the current wage model, such as performance-based incentive pay; to explore the attitudes workers hold toward home-based informal factories; and to assess the attitudes of workers to worker cooperatives. Using semi- structured face-to-face interviews, 24 respondents (ten formal and 14 informal workers) were selected to participate in an attitude survey that explored their feelings across attitudinal classes - cognitive, affective, and behavioural, using the non-probability purposive sampling technique. Research findings show that both sets of workers generally had a very poor understanding of the industry's regulatory environment. After receiving brief explanations of alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council, the workers understood them cognitively and attitudes varied between the two groups. All workers were generally against performance-based incentive pay because it requires them to place too much trust in employers. Informal work was viewed as a viable alternative although formal workers could not conceive joining informal firms. Both sets of workers expressed favour towards worker co-operatives, which have the advantage of changing the working relationship from manager and worker to worker as owner, thus empowering workers. All workers, however, demonstrated overall awareness of the pressures facing the clothing industry, such as those caused by cheap Chinese imports. The evidence is however, not sufficient to arrive at a set of conclusions regarding alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15172 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:57.328Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Institute of Development and Labour Law |
| publisherStr | Institute of Development and Labour Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15172 Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council Maraire, Wesley Godfrey, Shane Labour Law The South African clothing industry has shed over 70 000 jobs in the last decade. This has given rise to huge debate in the industry and academia about the role of the bargaining council in regulating the industry as well as other factors such as trade liberalisation that are causing the industry to shrink. This study explores attitudes held by formal and informal clothing workers toward the regulatory environment and possible alternatives to current regulation by the bargaining council. The research aimed to explore worker understanding of the regulatory environment, in particular the wages versus job-security trade-off; to find out whether workers are aware of alternatives to the current wage model, such as performance-based incentive pay; to explore the attitudes workers hold toward home-based informal factories; and to assess the attitudes of workers to worker cooperatives. Using semi- structured face-to-face interviews, 24 respondents (ten formal and 14 informal workers) were selected to participate in an attitude survey that explored their feelings across attitudinal classes - cognitive, affective, and behavioural, using the non-probability purposive sampling technique. Research findings show that both sets of workers generally had a very poor understanding of the industry's regulatory environment. After receiving brief explanations of alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council, the workers understood them cognitively and attitudes varied between the two groups. All workers were generally against performance-based incentive pay because it requires them to place too much trust in employers. Informal work was viewed as a viable alternative although formal workers could not conceive joining informal firms. Both sets of workers expressed favour towards worker co-operatives, which have the advantage of changing the working relationship from manager and worker to worker as owner, thus empowering workers. All workers, however, demonstrated overall awareness of the pressures facing the clothing industry, such as those caused by cheap Chinese imports. The evidence is however, not sufficient to arrive at a set of conclusions regarding alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council. 2015-11-21T09:37:03Z 2015-11-21T09:37:03Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15172 eng application/pdf Institute of Development and Labour Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Labour Law Maraire, Wesley Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council |
| title_full | Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council |
| title_fullStr | Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council |
| title_short | Cape Town clothing workers' attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the Bargaining Council |
| title_sort | cape town clothing workers attitudes towards key aspects of and alternatives to regulation by the bargaining council |
| topic | Labour Law |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15172 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marairewesley capetownclothingworkersattitudestowardskeyaspectsofandalternativestoregulationbythebargainingcouncil |