Establishing the Small Business Hub
The establishment of SEIFSA ’ s Small Business Hub ( SBH ), aimed at promoting the development of small and medium enterprises ( SME ), was also Mr Nyatsumba ’ s brainchild . The SBH would provide cost-effective products and services that addressed the overall needs of SMEs , provide cost-effective support services that were sectorfocused and related to SME categories , identify sector and company-specific challenges , monitor trends and develop specific interventions to improve SME performance .
The products , services and solutions offered by the SBH included accounting and advisory services , statutory compliance , information technology solutions , procurement of funding , broad-based black economic empowerment and cost- effective services from SEIFSA ’ s specialistled Divisions . “ To this end , we believe that we have enabled many small businesses to contribute more to South Africa ’ s economic growth and job creation through , for instance , the enterprise and supplier development programme that we implemented on behalf of one of our clients .”
SAEFA defederates from SEIFSA
The end of 2016 , just before the 2017 wage negotiations were due to begin , SEIFSA ’ s biggest member at the time , the South African Engineers and Founders Association ( SAEFA ) – which had for some time not been aligned with SEIFSA and its other member Associations on a number of issues , including approaches on the position of the financially-challenged Metals and Engineering
Industries Bargaining Council and extension of collective agreements to non-parties – decided to walk away from the Federation , taking with it all its member companies .
Despite SEIFSA believing strongly that a way could be found to ensure alignment between the SAEFA leadership and SEIFSA , it became obvious that in spite of the Federation ’ s numerous efforts to resolve differences with the Association , in the end some in the SAEFA leadership campaigned actively and aggressively for the Association to resign from SEIFSA .
“ Unfortunately , SAEFA ’ s resignation weakened the Federation at a time when greater unity of purpose was required among employers to solve the challenges that confront the sector , including the welfare of the MEIBC and the 2017 negotiations on wages and conditions of employment . To that extent , the resignation affected SEIFSA greatly ,” Mr Nyatsumba says .
However , Mr Nyatsumba states that the overall impact of SAEFA ’ s defederation subsequently became minimal because the vast majority of companies which were members of the breakaway Association switched to one of the many Associations that are members of SEIFSA . Collectively , these companies employ the overwhelming majority ( around 75 %) of the 45 000 employees that were represented by the 510 companies in that Association .
“ Many companies wanted to remain within SEIFSA for many reasons , apart from the fact that most of them have had a strong , productive association with the Federation over the years ( in the case of some companies , for longer than
50 years ). They know that , unlike any other employer organization in the sector , SEIFSA has unequalled experience in collective bargaining , employs qualified and experienced subjectmatter experts in a number of Divisions ( e . g . Economics and Commercial ; Industrial Relations and Legal Services ; Human Capital and Skills Development ; Safety , Health , Environment and Quality , etc .) and offers a series of important products and services ( like the unique SEIFSA Prices and Index Pages ) which they access at a discounted price .”
Mr Nyatsumba also states that SEIFSA still represents 23 loyal employer Associations , which collectively employ the majority of factory workers ( in excess of 175 000 ) in the metals and engineering sector and remains the authoritative voice of employers in the sector , representing them in collective bargaining and lobbying on their behalf .
“ SEIFSA remains the only employer representative in the sector with healthy relations with all stakeholders , including labour and the Government , and believes firmly that it will take a solid partnership among Government , business and labour to get South Africa to realize its economic potential .”
The 2017 three-year wage agreement
On 23 August 2017 , following four months of intensive talks – first within the Metals and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council wherein SEIFSA worked closely with all the
_ Continues on page ... 42
SEIFSA AT 75 - SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE 43