As the South African Parliament begins public hearings on amendments to the Labour Relations Act that could see labour brokers being banned, unions representing 2010 World Cup Stadium workers met in Johannesburg to hear about the prevalence of labour brokers in their sector – and how to prevent these from mushrooming in Brazil, which will build new stadiums ahead of hosting the World Cup in 2014.

Joni Musabayana, deputy director of the International Labour Organisation giving the keynote address called on FIFA to uphold decent working conditions as the rest of the World Cup projects are complete. In responding FIFA’s Organising Committee International Relations Manager, Itumuleng Dlamini, expressed support for the conference and decent working conditions in the World Cup and affirmed the commitment by the organising committee to ensure that construction workers receive free tickets for the games.

University of Cape Town academics Shane Godfrey and Pamhidzai Bamu of the Labour and Enterprise Policy Research Group presented The BWI report on labour broking in the World Cup stadiums.
Bamu and Godfrey found that construction companies prefer to have labour brokers source their labour to save themselves the trouble of having to lay off workers in the slow season. Workers become completely disposable and can be replaced instantly should their bosses become displeased with them, say Bamu and Godfrey.

“Using labour brokers dispenses with the problem of unfair dismissal and retrenchment costs and procedures, since the client has complete freedom to circumscribe the duration of the contract. Clients are not bound to keep workers for the stipulated periods, as labour brokers promise to replace a worker who the client is unhappy with”, says their report.

“While assurances of compliance with all the relevant legislation are made, promises to deal with unreasonable unions, strikes, unfair dismissal cases, annual wage negotiations, raise questions about the methods used to solve these problems”, say Bamu and Godfrey.

They also found that where subcontractors are paid per unit of work done, they do not employ enough skilled workers and tend to rely on unskilled workers whom they pay R80 per day. This “compromises quality and efficiency” they say.

Steve Grinter, of the International Textile and Garment Leather Workers’ Federation, demanded that FIFA should disclose where the clothing would come from noting that South African clothing producers would find it difficult to “compete with suppliers from abroad who pay workers peanuts and violate their basic trade union rights”.

After Crecentia Mofokeng’s presentation on the “Campaign for Decent Work towards and Beyond 2010: Models and Possibilities”, conference delegates felt that the campaign in South Africa was a major success as over 16,000 workers have been recruited by the construction trade unions and that unions were able to win a major wage increase for workers. The Decent Work campaign model in South would be discussed with Brazilian trade unions and other organisations supportive of the Decent Work Campaigning in preparation for the 2014 World Cup.

Conference delegates were appalled by the practice of evicting informal traders from the public spaces ahead of the Soccer World Cup and resolved to support the StreetNet, “World Class Cities for All” campaign. Conference further resolved to fight for the banning of labour brokers on both a national and international level and to revitalise the living wage campaign were key resolutions passed at the Multi-Sectoral Conference on Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010.

The Multi-Sectoral Conference on “Decent Work in World Cup 2010”, in Johannesburg, South Africa, was hosted by the Building and Woodworkers’ International (BWI), a federation of 318 construction unions around the world, representing 12 million workers, which includes the COSATU affiliate, ‘National Union of Mineworkers’. 94 representatives drawn from the textile, retail, hospitality and construction sectors attended to discuss and evaluate the impact of mega-sporting events on workers.

The international affiliates of Building and Woodworkers’ International, South African Affiliates, NUM, BCAWU and SABAWO, and other trade unions such FAWU, LECAWU, SACTWU and international organisations such as the ITUC, IUF, PSI, ITGLWF, Finnish Construction union – Rakennusliitto, SASK, FES, LRS, StreetNET involved in lobbying and struggling for better working conditions for workers in industries associated with major sporting events like the 2010 World Cup, met from the 26th to the 27th August 2009.