The labour department will hold a public hearing on amendments to the Labour Relations Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

In March Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant told a post-Cabinet briefing in Cape Town that the Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill would become the subject of public hearings.

These would be held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Kimberly, Rustenburg, Witbank and Polokwane.

Oliphant said more than a year of debate on the two bills in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) had led to agreement on a range of issues.

Oliphant said section 198 of the Labour Relations Amendment Act would apply to all employees and limit temporary employment to "genuine temporary work".

The bill assures additional protection for workers who earn less than R172,000 a year. It regulates contract work by stipulating that those who earn below the threshold can be employed on a fixed-term contract for longer than six months, only if the project is of limited duration, or the employer can demonstrate a justifiable reason for limiting the length of the contract.

Those who employed less than 10 people were exempt from this provision, as well as those who had a staff of 50, but had been in business for less than two years. The bill is also intended to clamp down on illegal and violent labour action.

The two other bills in the labour legislation overhaul – the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and the Public Services Bill – were still being debated in Nedlac, Oliphant said.

The deadline for the discussions to conclude was April, she said. If the forum failed to finalise them by then, the government would take the bills to Parliament.