Assessing the impact of Global Value Chains on the South African Labour Market

Project summary:

The impact of the presence and operations of global value chains on the South African labour market and its implications for the existing regulatory framework is an area of investigation that has not enjoyed attention of researchers. Based on a global literature review an impact assessment framework has been developed to examine both producer and buyer dominated value chains. Metal fabrication, capital and rail transport equipment, the automotive, wine and fruit value chains have been identified for analysis.

This involves the investigation of the operations of both statutory and non-statutory centralized bargaining forums such as the MEIBC, MIBCO and NBF as well as the various forms of company level bargaining and the effect of sectoral determinations. Areas to improve South Africa’s positioning in these value chains such as various forms of state support albeit through industrial policies or the prevailing education and training regimes are explored