South Africa has called on the African Regional Labour Administration Centre (ARLAC) to transform in order to support continental integration.
This support could help synchronise ARLAC activities to feed employment creation, social protection, rights at work, skills development and social dialogue. It can also provide relief to strained budgets.
This is according to Deputy Minister of Labour iNkosi Phathekile Holomisa, who was speaking at the opening of the 45th ARLAC Governing Council meeting in Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, on Tuesday.
Holomisa questioned how is it possible that there still exists organisations that are based on the divisive linguistic fault-lines ARLAC is to Anglophone countries while its sister organisations Centre Régional Africain d'Administration du Travail (CRADAT) and Arab Center for Labor Administration and Employment (ACLAE) are French and Arabic speaking African countries, respectively.
“The task we should be exploring is whether ARLAC, CRADAT and ACLAE cannot be training arms of respective regional formations as well as to making them tripartite in line with the nature of the issues they deal with,” he challenged delegates.
This will, however, require reformulation of their constitutions and redefining their memberships in line with those of Southern African Development Community (SADC), EAC, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Arab Maghreb Union.
Holomisa went on to warn that an ARLAC that is not responsive and quick enough to adapt to change will certainly not survive into the future.
Member states, he said, would be wasting their scarce financial resources in marinating a structure that does not provide a solution to grow regional economies; and to effect social justice at the workplace.
The 45th African Regional Labour Administration Centre meeting will end on Friday with the launch of the Future of Work Global Commission’s report which will be facilitated by Labour Minister, Mildred Oliphant.
The objectives of the ARLAC include the provision of training for officials at all levels of the labour administration system; provision of advisory services directed towards strengthening labour administration and research in labour administration. – SAnews.gov.za
