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According to reports, the revised versions of four key pieces of labour legislation will shortly be sent by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) to Cabinet for consideration. In their initial form, these bills could have resulted in massive job losses, with impact assessments saying two million people could be affected. I will make sure that the most dangerous provisions have indeed been removed.

The bills were submitted to NEDLAC, which is the forum for negotiation between business, government and labour, at the beginning of the year. It appears that the process at NEDLAC is reaching its conclusion. However, business, government and labour have not been able to find consensus on all of the issues addressed in the bills.

There is thus great uncertainty about the contents of the revised laws. As soon as these bills come to Parliament, the DA will study the revised drafts in detail. We will do everything in our power to remove any provisions that threaten existing jobs or make job creation more difficult.

The initial drafts of the bills included a number of proposals that we will seek to amend in Parliament should they survive the NEDLAC negotiations.

These provisions include:

Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill:

• Clauses that unilaterally prohibit any form of temporary employment services or labour broking, which makes hiring and firing people significantly more difficult and expensive; and
• A clause that dictates minimum wage escalations that might not be viable when employers are faced with more challenging economic conditions.

Employment Equity Amendment Bill:

• Clauses that escalate penalties for contravention of this act to very high levels. For example, failing to properly file all documentation related to this bill is punishable with a prison sentence; and
• Extremely vague clauses that require “equal pay for roughly equal work”. Although the DA supports the principle of equality, these clauses need to be rewritten to give more clarity about what constitutes “roughly equal work”. In its initial form it could be manipulated to punish employers that reward more productive workers.

Labour Relations Amendment Bill:

• A clause that declares all temporary-employed workers to be immediately made permanent employees. This will likely result in many temporary workers being laid off as their posts aren’t permanent in nature; and
• Increased ministerial powers, which will allow the Minister of Labour to determine labour regulations and codes of practice. This gives the Minister undue authority to change important regulations without proper consultation and creates more uncertainty with regards to future labour regulations.

Employment Services Bill:

• Clauses that call for the creation of a Public Employment Service. This will be an enormously expensive expansion of the state’s role into the employment services industry, which is already very competitive; and
• Clauses that will force the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Compensation Fund to contribute towards the Public Employment Service. Both the UIF and the Compensation Fund currently face their own challenges as many people struggle to access support from the UIF and the Compensation Fund, which means that these entities might struggle to support the creation of a Public Employment Service.

When the Department of Labour started drafting this legislation, they commissioned an impact assessment by labour experts from the University of Cape Town on the potential effect that these proposals could have on the labour market.

The assessment estimated that up over 2 million people who are currently employed could have their jobs placed in jeopardy due to these provisions. That is why the DA wants these provisions removed.

If NEDLAC was not able to iron out these problems, we will do everything we can in Parliament to ensure that the legislation is as job-friendly as possible.