Negotiating the future: Labour's role in NEDLAC

Abstract

The history of the South African labour movement has been one of a struggle to limit the power of both business and government to act autonomously. Since 1990 the labour movement has increasingly become involved in processes of multipartite policy formulation as it attempts to ensure that state policy does not compromise the interests of working people. The National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) is the key statutory body which institutionalises this mode of policy-making. This article is about labour's role in the processes of policy formulation that occur under the auspices of NEDLAC. Our specific concern is to assess the gains that labour has made from its participation in NEDLAC as well as to analyse the difficulties experienced by labour in its engagement with the NEDLAC process. The article is divided into five sections. Firstly we will discuss the formation of NEDLAC and its structure. The article will then go on to identify the aggregate gains that accrue to society as a whole because of NEDLAC, before proceeding to discuss the gains that labour has made from NEDLAC. The fourth section of the article analyses the difficulties experienced by labour in NEDLAC and the implications of these problems for their effective participation. The final section will draw some conclusions about labour's involvement in NEDLAC.

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