CASUALIZATION OF WORK IN CONSTRUCTION AND THE PLIGHT OF WORKERS IN BLOEMFONTEIN

1. Joint CIB W099 & TG59 Conference 11-13 June 2017 Cape Town, South Africa CASUALIZATION OF WORK IN CONSTRUCTION AND THE PLIGHT OF WORKERS IN BLOEMFONTEIN LG Mollo1 & FA Emuze2 1.2Department of Built Environment – CUT

2. Content

3. Background – 1 • Most unemployed people choose to fight poverty and inequality by becoming casual construction workers Figure 1: Casual Workers L. Mollo & F. Emuze

4. Background – 2 • Casualization in the construction industry is influenced by unemployment or lack of decent jobs • Casualization is described as the process of employing people either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis for an undefinedtaskor specifiedjobwithout issuing a permanentcontract L. Mollo & F. Emuze

5. Background – 3 • Casualization is adopted in the industries where demands for employment is highly variable and where entrepreneurs often like to employ people temporary positions: • Construction work • Port work • Farm labour • Other jobs which require manual labour or unskilled workers L. Mollo & F. Emuze

6. Problem Statement • Problem Statement: • Casualization keeps on growing as the dilemma and little is done to eradicate it in the South African construction industry, despite the existence of institutions such as the Department of Labour in South Africa that governs the labor practice through constituted Employment Acts L. Mollo & F. Emuze

7. Research Question • Research Question: • What does it mean to be a casual construction worker in Bloemfontein • We see casual workers daily in Bloemfontein L. Mollo & F. Emuze

8. Research Method • Qualitative • To understand the range of social issues such as the behavior or the reason for being a casual worker in Bloemfontein • Semi-structured interviews: • 18 participants • Aged between 25 and 35 years old • 72% (13) = Youth • 28% (5) = Older Men • Race = Black Male • No Female L. Mollo & F. Emuze

9. Findings – 1 • Casual Worker’s Definition: • The procedures of seeking employment by standing by the side of the road (traffic robot) in town to seek any hard manual labour job • Reason for becoming a casual worker • Inadequate work opportunities • Poor education background or no education • Economic recession (2008) – a major problem • Now, we are in a technical recession L. Mollo & F. Emuze

10. Findings – 2 • Challenges experienced by casual workers • Poor or late payments of wages • Oppressors (bullies) • Getting employment • Standing at the side of the street • Cellphone contact L. Mollo & F. Emuze

11. Findings – 3 Figure 2: Advertisement Board L. Mollo & F. Emuze

12. Findings – 4 • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Site Induction • No PPE (safety clothes, shoes, cloves, reflectors) • Site induction does not take place, below are quotes from one participant • ‘In 2016, I was taken to a construction site in Kimberly to work for three days, and I never heard of the word site induction, what is site induction and how does it help me’ L. Mollo & F. Emuze

13. Discussion – 1 • The textual data and the literature reviewed show that there are links between the factors that are pervasive regarding casualization in the construction industry • The Model below attempts to bring the factors together L. Mollo & F. Emuze

14. Figure 3: Casual Worker Frame Model (Mollo & Emuze, 2017)

15. Conclusions • The study provides insights about the rationale for the proliferation of the numbers of casual workers in Bloemfontein • Both the private and public sectors are failing to produce permanent jobs • Casualization is a negation of the decent job concept and the notion of Respect for People • The Department of Labour in South Africa must tackle casualization and compel people using casual worker to pay them a fair standardhourlyrate L. Mollo & F. Emuze

16. Acknowledgement • The researcher acknowledges the financial support of the National Research Foundation – Thuthuka Funding Instrument and The Unit for Lean Construction and Sustainability Thank You! L. Mollo & F. Emuze