The 'associative' discrimination fiction: part 1

Associative discrimination is a consequence of the open formulas used in the UK (and EU) equality legislation to define direct discrimination. The treatment needs only to be ‘because of a protected characteristic’ (such as race, sexual orientation, etc) rather than because of his (or her) protected characteristic. Hence, a white worker dismissed for marrying a black person could sue for direct (racial) discrimination. The open formula is not limited to such cases and, so, treating associative discrimination as a term of art is a mistake, as this could unnecessarily restrict the reach of the deliberately open legislative formula. This article identifies the Supreme Court judgment in Lee v Ashers as an example of this mistake. It further asserts that any compromise for conflicting rights is found in the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998), and not by distorting the definition of discrimination.

Labour Studies and Labour History in South Africa: Perspectives from the Apartheid Era and After

This article attempts to introduce readers to the impressive and influential historical and contemporary literature on South African labour. A literature with some earlier antecedents effectively applied classic sociological and historical themes to the specific conditions of South African political and economic development. Research on the phase of politicized and militant white worker action ties up with research into the international pre-World War I labour movement. The strength of this literature reflected the insurgent labour movement linked to political struggle against apartheid before 1990. After this review, the second half of the paper tries to consider and contextualize the challenging post-apartheid labour situation together with its political aspects. With the successful conclusion of the anti-apartheid struggle, students of the labour movement, as well as of South African society, have become more aware of the distance between establishing a liberal democracy and actually changing society itself in a direction leading towards less inequality and an improved life for those at the bottom of society, or even the broad mass of the population. As recent literature reveals, the development of post-apartheid South Africa has been a differential and problematic experience for labour.

Notes from Marikana, South Africa: The Platinum Miners’ Strike, the Massacre, and the Struggle for Equivalence

This note reflects on the August 2012 miners' strike at Marikana, South Africa in light of a century long history of violence associated with worker actions in that country and elsewhere in the Global South. It suggests that the breakaway union's allegedly ‘illegal’ strike fits within a long tradition of radical worker activism in South Africa, which is best understood in light of anticolonial efforts to short-circuit the chronologies of imperial power. The Marikana strike, like anticolonial rebellions during the early twentieth century and, critically, white worker struggles following First World War, was an effort to speed up the process by which the value of workers’ lives and labor might be made equivalent to those in power.

Die rol van die blanke werker in die motivering van die swart werker

The motivation of the Black worker can not be studied in isolation since the White worker still holds many executive positions and therefore has an influence on the Black workers' motivation. The role of the White worker in motivating the Black worker in a specific organisation and the attitude and leadership approach of the White worker on the existence/nonexistence and relative satisfaction of the needs of Black workers are discussed.Opsomming Die motivering van die Swart werker kan nie in die huidige situasie in isolasie bestudeer word nie, omdat die Blanke werker steeds in die bestuursposisie is en daarom die motivering van die Swart werker kan beïnvloed. Hierdie ondersoek was daarop gerig om die rol van die Blanke werker in die motivering van die Swart werker nader te ondersoek. Die houding en die leierskapsbenadering van die Blanke werker teenoor die Swart werker is gemeet, asook die behoeftes wat volgens die Blanke werker by die Swart werker bestaan, bevredig is, of nie bestaan nie. Die behoeftes van Swart werkers, soos deur hulleself gesien, is ook ondersoek. Ten opsigte van sekere aspekte is beduidende verskille gevind.

Level of Abstraction of Disagreements as a Determinant of Interpersonal Perception

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the higher the level of abstraction of a disagreement between two individuals, the greater would be the damage of the disagreement to interpersonal perceptions. In the first experiment, paper and pencil stimulus persons differing in race (black-white) and agreement versus disagreement on values (highly abstract), norms, roles, and facilities beliefs (least abstract) were presented to subjects who indicated their evaluation of and behavioral intentions toward the stimuli. The hypothesis was partially supported. In the second, slides coordinated with tape recordings of a white foreman agreeing or disagreeing with a black or white worker were presented to eighty white and eighty black males who guessed how the foreman or worker would evaluate each other and how they would intend to behave toward each other. The agreements/disagreements differed in level of abstraction. The hypothesis was supported. In addition, the order of presentation of agreements was a determinant of attraction, with an agreement following a series of disagreements leading to more attraction than an agreement following a series of agreements.