Johannesburg - Outsourcing firm Innovative Staffing Solutions (ISS) on Thursday welcomed the Constitutional Court ruling which strengthened the rights of temporary workers to be permanently employed, saying that it had warned labour brokers long ago that this day would come.
Last week, the highest court in the land ruled that casual workers who are employed by labour brokers and earning below R205 433 per annum would now be eligible to become permanent employees of the main employer after three months.
Arnoux Maré, managing director at ISS, said that he had become a lone voice against certain practices in the outsourcing industry for the past seven years because he had been advocating for the industry to self-correct. He said that he was not against outsourcing, but opposed the exploitation of workers.
Speaking during a media briefing in Johannesburg, Maré said that the status quo had now changed into workers' favour as they can apply for things such as loans or bonded houses, as a result of the ConCourt judgment.
"We welcome the ruling as the Constitutional Court effectively changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers for the better. As an outsourcing company, we employ 10,000 permanent staff in variety of sectors including transport, mining, logistics, engineering, hospitality and agriculture," Maré said.
"The ground-breaking judgment essentially freed low-paid workers, often exploited by labour brokers, giving them much needed security. I've been preaching this for years and I was told that I'm arrogant, I'm young but last week everything changed. The labour brokers' time of doing permanent unpermanent (sic) employment for a lifetime is over."
Labour brokers currently employ about 970 000 people in South Africa, or about 14 percent of the 5.6 million jobs in the market. Labour brokers have complained that the ruling would have adverse effects on the labour market and employment figures.