Decent Work Country Profile - South Africa (Pre-publication draft)

The Decent Work Country Profile for South Africa analyses progress and challenges across the ten Internationally agreed thematic areas of decent work. Within each area, the profile is based on a set of Decent Work Indicators, while information on rights at work and the legal framework for decent work is presented in the form of Legal Framework Indicators. Internationally recommended sets of indicators are used for both. However, the profile departs from the international recommendations where data for particular indicators are not available in South Africa. There are also several additions or adaptations of indicators to suit the South African context, as advised by the Steering Committee of South Africa’s Decent Work Country Programme. The Steering Committee, which has representation from all social partners, oversaw the exercise and was actively involved in proposing additional indicators, as well as discussing and proposing revisions to draft versions. The profile begins with a summary of the economic and social context for decent work. This is followed by a chapter on each of the thematic areas. To the extent possible, the indicators presented follow the international guidelines and are supplemented in various ways so as to be appropriate for the South African context. For example, the indicators in respect of youth are provided for different sub-groups corresponding to the national definition of youth, which has a cut-off point at 35 years. The penultimate chapter presents proposals for a smaller set of indicators that could be used going forward to monitor the country’s Decent Work Programme. This smaller set represents indicators based on data that are relatively reliable, produced regularly, and available relatively soon after the period which they measure. These indicators are also those that align most closely to the specific outcomes of the South African Programme prioritized for the 2014−15 biennium.