The latest issue of the Financial Mail contains an interesting article by Carol Paton concerning the fate of the controversial proposed amendments to employment laws and the impact study published in December 2010. It seems that the parties to Nedlac have agreed to go back to the drawing board and start the process afresh.
“Several government sources and other insiders to the (Nedlac) process say the fact that Cosatu was willing to start afresh rather than insist on holding on to the December draft, which banned labour brokers outright, is a positive development. But others express concern as there is no certainty on what will come in its place”.
View or download the full article by Carol Paton Just a temporary draft in the online version of the Financial Mail. Here are some extracts.
Back to the drawing board
“After the outcry about changes to labour legislation, government has gone back to the drawing board on its proposed labour broker ban”.
“The controversial proposed amendments to labour legislation which among other things banned labour brokers, and which it was feared would cause job losses, are dead in their present form”.
Cosatu – need to agree issues
“Cosatu deputy secretary-general Bheki Ntshalintshali says the department of labour’s decision to put aside the December draft doesn’t mean the bill has been withdrawn. But the parties wanted to “agree on issues” before debating the legal drafting”.
“Nedlac business convener and Business Unity SA (Busa) acting CE Raymond Parsons says the partners agreed ‘to approach the debate on the basis of agreed themes, which straddle all the bills’.”
Prior warning in regulatory impact assessment
“However, when the package of bills was presented to cabinet, economic development minister Ebrahim Patel proposed that a study on the employment effects be done first, in the light of government’s commitment to job creation. The regulatory impact assessment by two labour market experts, lawyer Paul Benjamin and economist Haroon Bhorat, warned that the negative effects on employment could be substantial”.
“In the business services sector, said the report, over 900,000 jobs had emanated from labour brokers or temporary employment services since 1995. If employees who were placed by brokers were now to be employed directly they would “now incur opportunity and financial costs to the employer. This may ultimately result in a significant increase in the cost of doing business and rise in the wage bill of employers … We risk outlawing possibly the major source of job creation over the past 14 years,” Bhorat says in a presentation on the impact assessment”.
Weak Minister of Labour ?
“The unofficial setting aside of the December draft in Nedlac has given government officials hope that progress can now be made. But there remains a problem: leadership from government, which has been lacking, will be important if there is to be a constructive process. However, it seems Oliphant is a weak minister. While this is perhaps to Cosatu’s advantage, as she shares a trade union history and empathy with workers, it is not good for either government or business”.
“At a briefing after her budget vote in parliament last week, Oliphant provided a garbled account of the Nedlac discussions of labour law reform, saying that the process was deadlocked over proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act, which seek to allow employers the leeway to decide whether national or regional demographics should apply in determining employment equity targets. But the parties say no discussion on the amendments to the Employment Equity Act has yet taken place”.
A cursory glance at the number of negotiated collective agreements where employers have already committed not to use labour brokers, is clear indication that COSATU’s preparedness to revisit the process is in no way a fine, conciliatory gesturenor any indication of its reasonableness or preparedness to compromise its principles. Their stance is tactical. COSATU has been so successful in achieving its objectives to date via the collective bargaining process that it has no dire need nor burning interest to embark upon such a tortuous process of legislation amendment.It can bide its time and expect that the victories will fall into its hands like ripening fruit. Labour is fully aware that avaricious employers will continue to concede to their demands,driven by their agendas of profit at (almost)all costs,narrow self-interest and disregard for principle. Employers’penchant for tabling lose-win compromises to maintain the peace so that the process of profit-making remains uninterrupted or can be speedily resumed is legendary. Their spineless capacity to settle agreements through appeasement instead of principle is impressive.
Reliance upon NEDLAC? Ho hum…While the process ponderously slides slothfully onward towards another inevitable compromise,BUSA is neither unified nor sufficiently mandated by “business”to present a cohesive position against organised labour. The Auto manufacturing and tyre manufacturing sectors among others have already sold out…setting a fine precedent. It reminds on of the lyrics of the evergreen protest song of the 60’s, “Where have all the flowers gone?”….When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
JOHANNESBURG June 29 Sapa
MANYI LABOUR BILLS REJECTED
A Nedlac task team has been ordered to redraft four controversial labour bills, The New Age reported on Wednesday.
This was decided at a seminar on Tuesday where organised labour, business and civil society organisations rejected the bills as “badly drafted” and a threat to business and investors.
The National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) decided to appoint a task team, comprising three people each from labour, business and government, to redraft the amendment bills, reported The New Age.
A new draft was expected to be completed by November.
The four bills are the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, Employment Services Bill, Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill and the Employment Equity Amendment Bill.
These bills were drafted when government spokesman Jimmy Manyi was still the director general of the labour department, before he was suspended.
Manyi had publicly urged cabinet and legislators to pass the bills.
Among other things, the bills aimed at eradicating labour brokering by repealing a section of the Labour Relations Act, and fining companies up to 10 percent of their revenue for repeatedly failing to comply with employment equity laws.
Sapa
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According to informed sources it seems that recently the following themes were ‘agreed’ at NEDLAC:
• A-typical employment relationships
• Dispute resolution – Effectiveness of CCMA / Labour Court
• Compliance and enforcement
• Access to employment
• Equity
• Collective bargaining
All the themes appear to be labour-law related and avoid getting to grips with what should really be considered:
#1 prerogatives of owners and managers (the risk-takers),
#2 “wage gap” myth and
#3 recognition of the value-exchange nature of the employment relationship.
According to this report by Luphert Chilwane and Thebe Mabanga that appeared yesterday in The New Age a Labour Department spokesperson, Page Boikanyo, said “No redrafting of the bills is taking place, but a discussion”.
QUOTE
Four bills initiated when controversial government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi was director-general at the Department of Labour have been rejected as “badly drafted” and a threat to business and investors.
The bills will have to be redrafted after they were rejected yesterday at a seminar. A new draft from National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) is expected to be completed by November.
The event was attended by representatives from business, labour and civil society organisations. In their current form, the proposed laws on employment, job creation and economic growth, would adversely affect business, according to speakers at a seminar organised to examine the impact of the bills.
Manyi had gone on public platforms to urge the cabinet and legislators to pass the bills, when he was suspended as Labour’s director-general.
A sign of the apprehension of the cabinet over the content of the bills was the step of commissioning a regulatory impact assessment of the laws before they had been released for public comment.
The assessment, by a panel of four labour law and economic experts, found that the laws could have adverse consequences for employment creation and economic growth.
“We are being forced to mitigate the damage and we hope to create an environment that will be conducive for business,” said Jonathan Goldberg, a labour lawyer and a representative of Business Unity South Africa at yesterday’s event.
Among other things, the bills aimed to eradicate labour brokers by repealing a section of the Labour Relations Act, and fining companies up to 10% of their revenue for repeatedly failing to comply with employment equity laws.
Goldberg called the bills “radical” and said close to 1 million employees placed by employment agencies could lose their jobs if they became law. Labour Department spokesperson Page Boikanyo said: “No redrafting of the bills is taking place, but a discussion.
UNQUOTE