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Post-war Labour Market Reconstruction, Private Labour Market Institutions and Non-market Actors

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The Reconstruction of Post-War Labour Markets in The Southern African Development Community

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Abstract

This chapter examines private labour market institutions, including employer organisations and trade unions, as well as non-market actors and shows that private institutions contribute to the remaking of the labour market too, albeit, feebly. With a focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the chapter draws on Peck’s notions of the labour market as an arena of contestation, conflict, contradiction and complexity to analyse the labour market in that country. The chapter points to a correlation between the internal weaknesses of the DRC’s public labour market institutions and those imposed by external factors.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Société Générale was the largest Belgian holding company and main shareholder of l’Union Minière du Haut Katanga (copper and other metals), la Société Internationale Forestière et Minière du Congo (diamonds and timber), la Compagnie du Chemin de fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga (railways and construction) and la Banque d’Outremer (banking) (Buelens and Marysse 2009).

  2. 2.

    The Compagnie pour le Commerce et l’Industrie du Congo was a holding company with several daughter companies, such as the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Congo (railways), the Compagnie des Magasins Généraux (retail), the Société Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut Congo (import–export), the Compagnie des Produits du Congo (import–export), and the Companie du Katanga (mining) (Buelens and Marysse 2009).

  3. 3.

    The Groupe Empain owned the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Congo Supérieur aux Grands Lacs Africains (railways) and was the main shareholder of the Banque du Congo Belge (banking) (Buelens and Marysse 2009).

  4. 4.

    Lever Brothers owned the Huileries du Congo Belge (palm oil). As of March 2023, Unilever was a joint venture between Unilever PLC (UK) and Unilever NV (The Netherlands), making it a British-Dutch multinational corporation.

  5. 5.

    For insight into the FEC’s tasks and projects not related to the labour market, see its webpage (http://www.fec-rdc.com/index.php/notre-federation/nos-realisations).

  6. 6.

    Autochthony is the right to make a claim of land ownership and access to state services and benefits (Segatti 2015: 15).

  7. 7.

    The Tax on Pollution was instituted by the Ordinance-Law No. 13/001 of 23 February 2013 to Fix the Nomenclature of Taxes, Duties, and Fees of the Provinces and Decentralised Territorial Entities and their Distribution Modalities.

  8. 8.

    Lufu is located in Kongo Centrale Province (on the DRC’s south-western border with Angola). Congolese and Angolans trade informally in this area. Congolese buy cheap but genuine goods imported from Brazil, Namibia, and South Africa and sell them at lower prices than they are sold in formal shops in Kinshasa.

  9. 9.

    This speech is also available on YouTube (see Mazongelo, Aurelie. 2013. “Les Anciens Travailleurs De 24 Entreprises De La Rdc Reclament Leurs Salaires.” Congo Mikili News. Retrieved 17 September 2017 [www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZLYSBnVZY8&t=180s]).

  10. 10.

    The Congolese French syndicats maisons means ‘union of the house’, thus trade unions where all members work for the same company (Botedi 2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Saint José Inaka

  2. SARChI Chair: The Political Economy of Migration in the SADC Region, Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Christopher Changwe Nshimbi & Leon Mwamba Tshimpaka

Authors
  1. Saint José Inaka
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  2. Christopher Changwe Nshimbi
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  3. Leon Mwamba Tshimpaka
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Correspondence to Saint José Inaka .

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Inaka, S.J., Nshimbi, C.C., Tshimpaka, L.M. (2023). Post-war Labour Market Reconstruction, Private Labour Market Institutions and Non-market Actors. In: The Reconstruction of Post-War Labour Markets in The Southern African Development Community. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37357-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37357-2_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37357-2

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