“’A central objective of the current round of amendments to labour legislation is to deal with the increase in labour broking and, in particular, with the abuses associated with the practice and the way in which it deprives many workers of basic protections under labour law,’ Ms Oliphant said yesterday”.
Government will employ additional inspectors to monitor labour brokers and ensure they adhere to regulations being amended’.
View or download the article by Alistair Anderson appearing for the first time in Business Day today – State to spend R60m vetting labour brokers.
Business Day has kindly consented to the use of some extracts.
The labour bills being discussed at Nedlac are the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Employment Equity Act, the Labour Relations Act and Employment Services Bill .
Ms Oliphant said a team at Nedlac was engaging on the amendments and “had decided to discuss changes under a number of themes and to broaden the scope of amendments further”.
“I am pleased to report that the work in Nedlac is progressing well and there is a meeting of minds on a number of issues. New legal drafting has started on the following issues including fixed-term contracts; temporary employment agencies; part-time work; and probation.”
Ms Oliphant said labour statutes needed to be “simple” and “coherent”. During the public hearing the bills were criticised for their “incoherent” and “confusing” wording.
“In addition to enjoying the support of our social partners, our labour legislation must meet two additional criteria.
“First, labour statutes should be simple. Labour law guides the courts, employers and employees as well as labour organisations … and it should be understandable. Second, our labour laws need to be coherent. At a time when we are amending three statutes and introducing a fourth, it is imperative that we have coherence between statutes.”
She hoped the bills would be drafted by November. But Ian Ollis, the Democratic Alliance’s spokesman on labour, said the process may take longer. “Only one section of one bill has been completed,” he said.