TIPS Policy Brief - Towards a right to work: The rationale for an employment guarantee in South Africa

What if unemployed people in South Africa had a right – a real right – to a minimum level of
regular work on decent terms? In 2005, India passed a law guaranteeing rural
households up to 100 days of work a year, at minimum wage rates. Over 55 million
households now participate in the programme.

Real policy innovation able to change society in significant ways is rare. India’s employment
guarantee is an innovation of this magnitude, with implications for social and economic
policy, and for the role of the state as employer of last resort when markets fail. In the
process, India has given new meaning to the concept of a right to work – opening new
policy doors.

This policy brief analyses the context of structural unemployment in marginal areas in South
Africa, briefly describes India’s employment guarantee programme, explores the rationale
for an employment guarantee in South Africa – and considers lessons from South Africa’s
Community Work Programme (CWP) on how such a guarantee could work in practise.