Join a union, immigrants told

By Carien Du Plessis

Cosatu has called for illegal immigrants working in South Africa to be unionised to fight exploitation by employers.

Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said yesterday that unions should be able to address the problem of employers who "take advantage of" illegal immigrants.

He said some illegal workers in restaurants did not even receive salaries, but had to live off their tips, which was against the law and also contributed to worse working conditions for all workers.

Violence erupted in the rural town of De Doorns last week with local people targeting Zimbabweans and accusing them of stealing their jobs.

About 2 500 foreigners were forced to flee their homes and are still living in temporary camps.

Speaking after a three-day meeting of Cosatu's central executive committee, Vavi said the union appreciated that competition for jobs could lead to confrontations.

"We are aware that the employers are taking advantage of the situation and exploiting those workers. All of us employ workers from the region - as domestic workers, in the hospitality industry, in the security industry. Workers from the region are being superbly exploited by unscrupulous employers."

Vavi said South African workers could not be blamed for foreigners' exploitation.

"Employers blame South African workers for not accepting the terms they are offering, but South African workers have every right to refuse to work for low wages or in bad conditions. The unions cannot be expected to agree to a worsening of the already low level of wages."

Vavi said Cosatu was "strongly opposed" to xenophobic attacks and would work to fight xenophobia.

"We must counter the false arguments that unemployment and lack of services are the fault of immigrant workers."

He said the biggest problem was "the large and growing number of undocumented immigrants, who continue to flood into the country".

During its meeting, Cosatu met Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who has been asked by the cabinet to come up with a new immigration policy.

At issue are the hundreds of thousands of people crossing into South Africa from neighbouring countries and claiming to be asylum seekers, but who in fact are economic migrants seeking jobs.

Vavi said one solution would be to implement developmental policies across the continent so that migrants no longer made their way to South Africa. Dlamini-Zuma has said that any new policy would "be informed by the labour movement".

More talks are on the cards, while Dlamini-Zuma's spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, said there would also be public hearings on the issue.

Dlamini-Zuma said earlier in the week that the government needed to be at the service of "tourists, immigrants or even people who come here as asylum seekers".

• This article was originally published on page 5 of The Daily News on November 26, 2009