Wiseman Khuzwayo
Two of the four labour bills tabled at Nedlac were at the legal drafters of the Department of Labour and might be released within the next two weeks, a source close to the negotiations at the forum for the government, business, labour and civil society said this week.
They are the Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill.
Department spokesman Musa Zondi said: “Once there is something, we will make an announcement.”
The Labour Relations Amendment Bill states that an employee must be employed permanently, unless the employer can justify his or her employment on a fixed-term contract.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Bill makes it a crime for employers not to pay wages and overtime.
The business community responded angrily when Business Report reported in December last year that consensus had been reached at Nedlac on the two bills being drafted, after an interview with Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant.
John Botha, the general manager of the Production Management Institute (PMI) and a representative of Business Unity SA at Nedlac, reportedly said: “We are very angry as an industry… This (the comments) has come out of nowhere and it is causing a huge disruption for us as an industry. Business reads the report and it creates a sense of uncertainty.”
The source said the other bills – the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and the new legislation, the Public Employment Services Bill – had not yet been tackled at Nedlac.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill will require that equal pay be paid for equal value, with contraventions subject to penalties ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent of turnover.
The Public Employment Services Bill seeks to restrict labour broking, and is opposed by Cosatu, which is seeking an outright ban thereof.
For this reason, the labour union has called for a general strike and marches on March 7 to drive home its demand.
The source said the two bills before the drafters were in four themes: atypical employment, collective bargaining, dispute resolution and compliance and enforcement.
In October 2010 the DA submitted a private member’s bill in Parliament, which proposes that unions be held accountable for their members’ conduct during strikes. It is supported by the SA Local Government Association.
Ian Ollis, the sponsor of the bill, said the department now supported his bill. He added that, during a briefing to the portfolio committee on labour about the passage of the labour bills at Nedlac, the department revealed it had inserted in the Labour Relations Amendment Bill similar amendments to the DA’s position on strikes.
Today, the Constitutional Court will hear a case that arises out of a damages claim made in Western Cape High Court by traders and vehicle owners against the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union.
The case arose out of a May 2006 march by striking security guards in the Cape Town city centre, which turned violent.
The court found Satawu liable, and the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld its decision in September last year.