Promotion of Decent Work in the South African Transport Sector (phase I)

The ILO Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for South Africa identifies four priority areas for interventions in support of local constituents and other stakeholders, namely the strengthening of Labour Market Governance, the promotion of employment, the extension of social protection coverage and the strengthening of HIV/AIDS workplace responses. These priority areas have been further concretized in nine intermediate outcomes that serve as reference points for the formulation of specific initiatives. The intermediate outcomes are to be treated as interlinked, in line with the ILO 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization according to which the different dimensions of decent work are inseparable and mutually supportive. The DWCP support initiative proposed in this SPROUT is designed as a pilot project to demonstrate this emerging systemic approach to the promotion of Decent Work. The project will focus on an employment-intensive service industry with a Decent Work deficit, here the South African transport industry. It aims at boosting industry competitiveness of a key industry player, Transnet, through a combination of interventions determined by way of social dialogue and ranging from workplace improvement measures to functional and technical/vocational skills training and further on to the facilitation of access to social protection. The proposed project has three phases and a duration of five years. The strategic emphasis of the first phase is on piloting the new approach in the Ports of Durban and Richards Bay during a 24 months period and with a budget of 1,27 million US Dollars. The overall objective of the proposed project is the creation of decent employment for women and men. The overall outcome of phase I are more sustainable businesses, here in the Ports of Durban of Richards Bay, that create decent and productive jobs. The proposed initiative comes at a time when South African Ports are recovering from the impact of the global financial and economic crisis. In line with the Global Jobs Pact facilitated by ILO in response to the crisis, the programme will make a significant contribution to the protection of existing jobs and the accelerated economic recovery of the Port.

Project symbol

SAF/10/02/MUL

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Pretoria

Start date

01/01/2011

End date

30/11/2012

Total allocation

1245123

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

1245123

Development Partners

Netherlands, Embassy in South Africa

Country/Countries

South Africa

Outcomes

Sustainable Enterprises