Business Day
*Minister wants finality on labour bills* *Alistair Anderson, Business Day, Johannesburg, 19 October 2011*LABOUR Minister Mildred Oliphant yesterday pressed the government, labour and business representatives to finalise the prolonged and controversial labour law amendments and enact them by the end of May next year.
The bills, which include a proposal to criminalise labour broking and another to limit temporary employment, were proposed last December. Their definition of temporary work, employment equity rules and other ambiguities upset business, and the process of finalising them has stalled.
Mildred OliphantMs Oliphant said she wanted the work, which is before the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), to be wrapped up by the end of this month.
"In this regard the ministry would still want to go back to Cabinet in November and possibly be ready to table the bills in Parliament still in this session. The minister expects that the entire process should be finished by May next year --- signed into law," said Department of Labour spokesman Musa Zondi.
The bills include three that amend existing legislation and one set of new proposals.
The Labour Relations Amendment Bill states "an employee must be employed permanently unless the employer can establish a justification for employment on a fixed term". This limits temporary work.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Bill makes it a crime for employers not to pay wages and overtime. The Employment Equity Amendment Bill will require that equal pay be paid for equal value, with contraventions subject to penalties ranging from 2%-10% of turnover. Business feels that this is vague and that the penalty is excessive in any case.
The Public Employment Services Bill is new legislation and not an amendment. It seeks to outlaw labour broking by making it illegal for brokers to be responsible for workers they have placed with a third-party company.
The parties to the bills met last week at Nedlac. At the time of his appointment two weeks ago, Nedlac's new executive director Alistair Graham Smith said the bills were on the top of his agenda.
"There is obvious pressure to get it done. The (labour) minister has indicated that it needs to reach finality as soon as possible. We should focus on job growth. We need to get to real issues, not ideological ones," he said at the time.
Yesterday, business, labour and government representatives would not say if they were closer to agreeing on the touchiest aspects of the bills. But Business Unity SA (Busa) said it was confident progress was being made.
"We are meeting all the time. We have three meetings next week. It is difficult to say we are closer to agreeing on issues but we have been talking. Right now, we are discussing collective bargaining," said Busa's executive director for social policy, Vikki Harbhajan.
Congress of South African Trade Unions' spokesman Patrick Craven declined to comment, citing the delicacy of the negotiations.
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