Labour law change hits casual staff

635 03.02.2015 A group of man seat on a shade in the hot sunny day while other one read newspaper, at corner of railway street and Church Street in Mayfair. They seat at the same corner everyday waiting for a construction company or an individual person who have a piece jobs for them. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

635 03.02.2015 A group of man seat on a shade in the hot sunny day while other one read newspaper, at corner of railway street and Church Street in Mayfair. They seat at the same corner everyday waiting for a construction company or an individual person who have a piece jobs for them. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

Published Jul 5, 2015

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Johannesburg - The temporary employment service industry has suffered devastating blows since the implementation of labour law amendments, with the worst effects felt by workers who have lost jobs en masse.

The Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) said it has recorded an average increase of Section 198 referrals since April, when the regulation came into effect.

Workers are exercising all their legal options to fight joblessness, many also approaching the labour court to argue they were unfairly dismissed.

The reason for the turmoil is a section in the Labour Relations Act which provides for temporary employment service (TES) employees earning below R205 433.30 a year (R1 712 a month) to be deemed permanent after a continuous three-month period.

But instead of the expected seamless conversion of such workers to permanent posts, employers have been dismissing workers as some cannot afford to absorb them, or were simply dodging the law.

Results of a study conducted by the Confederation of Associations in the Private Employment Sector (Capes) found that only one in four temporary employees were made permanent following the amendment, concluding that the primary response by firms to the amendment was negative.

Capes, which represents more than 1 200 independent staffing business across all major sectors and a daily average of more than 700 000 temp workers, also said their research found that half of all sampled workers had their jobs terminated or had been retrenched.

The study was conducted by the University of Cape Town on their behalf. “Negative effects were felt most strongly in manufacturing, finance, real estate and business services, and public and social services industries and the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces,” read the study, released in June.

TES companies were not left unscathed, with most being liquidated and shutting their doors.

The initial reaction by the CCMA and all parties affected by the law was to apportion blame for the shedding of jobs on confusion over the interpretation of the amendment, with TES companies and their clients unsure just who was bound by the law to employ workers.

This week, the CCMA shed light on the matter in a test case of the different interpretations between Metalworkers Union (Numsa), Assign Services, a labour broker, and Krost Shelving & Racking who are the clients.

According to commissioners handling the matter, the law should be interpreted to only deem the client as employers and not the labour brokers, meaning workers should be offered permanent posts after three months by the companies which they are contracted to by employers.

However, the TES companies under Capes were preparing to challenge the precedence-setting ruling at the labour court. They were unhappy with the ruling completely scrapping TES companies’ role as “employers” which would inevi-tably have financial implications for the labour brokers.

“The arbitrator fails to deal with the practical examples, resulting in the TES no longer being the employer. This includes rights acquired against the TES such as stop order facilities. The arbitrator has failed to deal with the fact that, on his finding, TES’s could simply stop paying over union dues,” said Capes.

The CCMA defended the ruling, saying it would set the record clear, empowering workers who wanted to either refer cases to the commission or approach the labour court if they felt hard-done-by by employers.

The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) said it planned a strike against Anglo Platinum after they refused to absorb 165 workers who were dismissed after their contractor and the mining company parted ways at Twickenham Mine in Morapaneng village, near Burgersfort in Limpopo.

“The same thing happened at Marula platinum mine, where 189 people were dismissed when the company had to convert workers’ contracts to permanent jobs.

“We have many cases in the region, the mining houses which bargain in the Chamber of Mines saw the law coming and thought of strategies to deal with workers,” said NUM education secretary for North East region, Matlagolo Councillor Mmowa.

He told of dire conditions which had befallen “thousands” of miners who are out of jobs since the amendments to section 198 were effected.

The Sunday Independent

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