Events and Exhibitions
Members interacting with the guest speaker through various questions put forward . From left : John Parry , Al Johnson and David Botha .
are , and are recorded according to the standard Main Agreement , to avoid such disputes or arbitration .
Landman further covered several scenarios he had experienced over the last 35 years of his career to illustrate the possible outcomes of job grading in the positive and negative , including overpayment and underpayment situations . He also noted that the grading exercise employers go through drives the job function ( what the employee must do to complete his daily or monthly tasks , which is commonly misunderstood by business owners ).
A robust engagement continued by members putting forward various questions to Landman where they also discussed two different grading systems , one being the 13 grade system ( category of wage ) and a 5 grade system , and the practicality of which system would best be suited to the HVACR sector for simplicity and fairer balance for business owners who are often burdened with salary bills whether they have work for a particularly graded employee or not , and are limited to the tasks they could issue such employees under difficult economic times . Employee mix was also addressed as a solution to certain scenarios .
The presentation further highlighted some interesting points for the business sector to be aware of such as falsified employee documents ( in order to qualify for a higher wage category ), the current average age of artisans in South Africa is between 48 and 62 , the ongoing shortage ( and decline ) of artisanal employees alludes that within 15 years and without any changes the country will be without any , and this then leads to a future having to balance against the international rates paid for these skills . This situation is also the conundrum for business owners – when they do upskill staff through various training programmes internally or externally themselves ,
although getting some money back , employees often leave to go to other companies .
Moving on from the presentation , finance feedback for the association was addressed by director Barney Richardson , who reported that all was going well except for some members who continued to be affected by various pandemic related positions . New members / re-issued memberships were also tabled .
The regional chairmen then discussed their views on their outlook for the industry - all noting that trading conditions were still slow around the country and the ongoing pandemic and lockdown situation was well set into the sector . The feedback also noted that companies have resorted to grabbing any work they can as ‘ competitiveness had reached horrible levels ’ further leading to companies diversifying as best possible to keep business afloat with continual low margins as another major concern ‘ that could bring down the entire industry ’ and ‘ to levels where businesses can ’ t compete because of zero profitability ’. The recent looting debacle in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province also caused further stress onto the sector as even tenders have slowed , and many companies remain closed .
The recently concluded new national skill programme manual was also discussed and the progress on the additional ammonia portion of the material is currently gaining input from various industry companies involved in ammonia refrigeration as this is a fairly new subject matter for training ( the F-Gas portion was re-written from previous / existing material ).
Concluding the event , Basson thanked all member and participants and wished all well until the next meeting to be held . RACA
QUOTE OF THE MONTH “ I have not failed , but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb . - Thomas Edison .
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I November 2021 21