Abstract
This paper undertakes a review of the literature that examines the highlights and changes in specific external environmental factors (Ecology, Economy, Politics, Legislation and legal structures, and Society), between1994 and 2008 in South Africa, with the aim to ascertain how these factors affect the day-to-day labour relations in the workplace and add to sustainable development. These factors form the landscape for labour relations. Changes to them have consequences on the quality of labour relations, that is, inter alia, the frequency, and intensity of conflicts, disputes, demands and industrial actions. It is also evident that with its power and through the political system, the South African trade union was enhanced to shape the labour relations landscape. Labour laws were particularly designed to be worker friendly and to ensure that trade unions could use a fair collective bargaining system to spread the wealth of the mining industry, agriculture and other industries more evenly. Also, because of the alliance that exists between Labour and the ruling party (ANC), the economy was influenced so that economic policies could to a certain extent guide and steer economic growth, unemployment, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates. Trade unions were instruments in ensuring that formal changes in laws and policies did, in fact, reach and positively impact families and households within the social environment. Lastly, trade unions were the most effective instrument for heralding change within South Africa in the environmental fields of ecology, economy, politics, legislation and legal structures, as well as within society. Furthermore, these fields have interchangeably affected the labour relations landscape thereby indelibly shaping it between 1994 and 2008.
Highlights
Between 1994 and 2008, South Africa prepared its environment to ensure sustainable development in its labor relations and to make sure that it would run smoothly
This paper undertakes a review of the literature that examines the highlights and changes in specific external environmental factors (Ecology, Economy, Politics, Legislation and legal structures, and Society), between1994 and 2008 in South Africa, with the aim to ascertain how these factors affect the day-to-day labour relations in the workplace and add to sustainable development
Because of the alliance that exists between Labour and the ruling party (ANC), the economy was influenced so that economic policies could to a certain extent guide and steer economic growth, unemployment, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates
Summary
Between 1994 and 2008, South Africa prepared its environment (economically, socially, legally, politically and ecologically) to ensure sustainable development in its labor relations and to make sure that it would run smoothly. New machinery (CCMA, Nedlac) was launched to assist with labor peace. This period allowed for the role players (labor, employers, government) enough time to settle into and negotiate the new systems. The environmental factors were given enough time to reveal their specific cycles so that the role-players could implement the necessary changes for sustainable development and survival purposes. M.Com., Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. What were the outstanding environmental aspects of the SA labor relations landscape between 1994 and 2008 that most prominently influenced the labor relations of both that era and the one?
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