Even though high levels of unemployment are a core reason for poverty in South Africa among
the poor are a large number of working individuals (Leibbrandt Finn & Woolard 2012 Van der
Berg 2011). The working-poor earn not only low incomes but also possess little power in the
employment relationship. Unlike highly sought-after professionals low-income employees are
easily replaced owing to their low formal skills and education levels while at the same time
being particularly reliant on their jobs for survival (Ehrenreich & Siebrase 2014 Visser &
Meléndez 2015). To counter the resulting power differential amongst low-income workers and
employers the South African labour legislation under specific conditions allows trade unions
to mobilise their members to engage in protest actions (Labour relations Act 1995). While
common protest actions frequently lead to losses on both sides: productivity losses for
organisations and loss of income for protesting employees. For example in 2014 the South
African mining industry alone lost just over 7 billion Rand because of protest actions that
lasted five-month and during that time protesting employees did not earn an income (William
2017). De Wet (2012) also found that employees generally do not believe that engaging in
protest action is financially rewarding.
