Standard employment and segmentation practices within the automotive industry in South Africa

Focusing on segmentation practices in an automotive manufacturing cluster in South Africa allows us to present a detailed picture of a specific industrial labor market in the Global South. Segmentation practices are outlined in terms of the variation in employment security and quality, encompassing the use of different types of employment, wage levels, and working hours. To explain these practices in collective bargaining and at the firm level, we draw on the insights of the global production network approach, as well as the labor market segmentation approach, which emphasizes national institutional settings such as general labor law, collective bargaining systems, but also power resources of different actors. Using a deductive qualitative design, we subjected 17 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2023 to qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. This qualitative inquiry was further supplemented with quantitative data for the period 2022 to 2025 on labor norms and collective agreements, integrated within a theory-driven analytical framework. Although we find that South Africa formally adheres to a universalist labor law regime, opportunities for flexible forms of employment persist and are actively utilized within the sector. In addition, the bifurcated bargaining structure constitutes a key mechanism for segmentation. The structural power asymmetry between lead firms and suppliers is effectively transmitted to the workforce and its representation structures. This is reflected in substantially lower wages, longer working hours, and reduced employment and income security for workers at suppliers compared to those employed by lead firms. These findings demonstrate that, despite the presence of a universalist labor law regime, the power asymmetries between employers within the production network and along the supply chain as well as the bifurcated bargaining structure influence power relations between unions and employers and reproduce the distinctly segmented labor market practices in the South African automotive manufacturing network in Gauteng.