Morris' job data not authoritative
October 11, 2006
In the article on job losses (Business Report, October 10), retail sector consultant Mike Morris has questioned the job loss data in the clothing, textile and footwear industries. He claims on the basis of partial data that 16 500 jobs instead of 67 000 jobs were lost over the past four years. These claims fly in the face of official retrenchment statistics.
Stats SA pegged employment at 206 947 in January 2003. By June this year, data showed employment in the sector had dropped to 142 203. This shows a job loss figure for the three-and-a-half-year period of 64 744.
In terms of the Labour Relations Act, companies that retrench workers are obliged to disclose the numbers to the trade union. Using this, the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) and SA Labour Research Institute (Salri) researchers have put together a database of retrenchment of affected workers.
The Salri database contains records of 530 factories that have retrenched workers or closed down over the three and a half years. The database tracked about 67 000 job losses, made up of 51 930 recorded job losses and estimates of a further 14 961 retrenched workers.
Morris uses bargaining council data yet fails to state that they only covered the four main cities. Only since July 2003 has it covered the country. It had to create a database of firms not registered before, and job losses are offset against this apparent job growth. Hardly authoritative data about aggregate employment.
Morris is invited to visit communities and see the devastation of job losses. He may take a different view. He is not entitled to twist facts to suit his paymasters or his denial.
Andre Kriel
Sactwu
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