The department of Labour will push ahead with piloting contentious labour bills through Parliament in spite of a lack of agreement between the social partners on key provisions, including labour broking.
The labour bill amendments, which were published at the end of 2010 and have been robustly debated during a year-long process at negotiating chamber Nedlac, were to be submitted to the portfolio committee on labour yesterday, department officials confirmed.
Despite protracted talks at Nedlac, the forum has not signed off on the proposed bills. However, Labour Department chief director of collective bargaining Thembinkosi Mkalipi insisted yesterday that the bills were “finalised”.
“These bills are no longer up for negotiation. There’s no law that says Nedlac has to (agree),” Mkalipi said.
He acknowledged that the major disagreements related to labour broking, violence during strikes and what constituted essential services.
Significant changes include that workers engaged in temporary employment may bring claims to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in which both labour brokers and their clients will be liable.
Labour brokers will also be forced to comply with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act for employees earning below the threshold of R172 000, if the legislation is passed.
This includes that temporary work would likely be defined and limited to six months.
Further, the Labour Court would have powers to rule on compliance of labour-brokered contracts with the Labour Relations Act, a sectoral determination or bargaining council agreement if the amendments are passed by Parliament.
Mkalipi was at pains to add that the proposed legislation included attempts to increase flexibility for employers.
For example, a new amendment seeks to limit access to the CCMA for higher earners – although this threshold for income was yet to be finalised.
In another vein, bargaining councils’ collective agreements would have to be finalised within 30 days, in an attempt to speed up these processes.
Business representatives at the briefing expressed concerns over amendments that would allow for pickets to take place at shopping malls – if agreed to by all parties involved – as well as concerns from those in the retail sector about temporary, flexi and permanent staff having to be paid equal wages.
Trade unionists and shop stewards lamented the fact that seasonal farmworkers were “permanently seasonal” yet came back to the very same farms each year in many cases.
Mkalipi said it was not the intention to do away with seasonal farm work. “It’s the nature of the industry,” he said.
Parliament will conduct public hearings on the bills.