Issued by the Department of Labour
29 June 2000
The Department of Labour will be embarking on a series of initiatives as part of its service excellence strategy in the next few years, director general Adv Rams Ramashia said at media briefing today on the Department's strategic plan for 2000-2004.
Ramashia said the Department had initiated a far-reaching transformation of its service delivery arms in line with business best practice models and government's Batho Pele campaign. The Department's provincial offices and over 120 labour centres were in the process of restructuring and reorientation to deliver professional one-stop services to the public.
Provincial offices would be committing themselves to service level agreements with specified service standards and timeframes.
The director general said he was determined to turn the Department's service delivery arms into centres of service excellence over the next few years. This would involve institutional and operational restructuring as well as a change in culture to provide efficient, effective, accessible and client-centred services.
A linchpin of the strategy is an ambitious Information Technology Plan (ITP) which will realign the Department's information technology management with the Department's strategic and operational objectives.
The ITP, which will entail a capital investment of R1,5 billion over a 15-year period, will involve a public private partnership (PPP) to set up leading-edge information technology infrastructure and information management systems. This will underpin the Department's nationwide integrated service delivery strategy and will include an electronic one-stop service with call centre technology and remote access terminals.
Ramashia said a feasibility study had pointed to the PPP option as the most viable and cost-effective funding route and was in line with government's approach to leveraging private resources in ensuring the effective delivery of public services.
The project will integrate the IT systems of the Department's head office, provincial offices and labour centers, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and Compensation Fund and will include a skills transfer to staff of the Department through information management operational and support training.
The initiative will boost the Department's restructuring process and ensure that workers, employers, UIF or Compensation Fund beneficiaries and other clients of the Department will have access to the Department's services anywhere in the country.
The Department's head office operations will also be focussing on critical delivery foci including a client-centred strategy, sound financial management, effective and efficient administration and staff capacity building.
Ramashia said the Department's strategic plan also aimed to ensure that its Human Resource Management practices emerged as models of best practice in both the private and public sector.
"We plan to practice what we preach to employers and employees in the labour market, with a particular emphasis on the implementation of the Employment Equity Act and the Skills Development Act within the Department."
Significant progress had been registered in addressing the racial and gender imbalances reflected in the staff which the Department of Labour inherited. The majority (58%) of the Department's managers are black, while 33% of managers are women.
From the beginning of November 1998 to 31 October 1999, African women represented the highest percentage (34%), and African men 31% of new appointments, promotions and transfers within the Department.
However, Ramashia said progress in the promotion and appointment of people with disabilities had been inadequate. Only 1,43% of managers and 1,81% of staff are disabled.
The Department would address this through the implementation of its Employment Equity Plan, which outlines targetted measures to improve the representivity of people with disabilities and other designated groups throughout the Department's workforce. This includes making the Department's offices and facilities accessible to people in wheelchairs, printing documents in braille and more assertive and targetted recruitment.
Ramashia said the development and implementation of a Departmental skills development plan had already been initiated. "This is central to our maxim of working smarter and to ensure that all our staff have the necessary skills and capacity to realise their full potential and to achieve the Department's objectives."
For more information contact:
Phenyo Nonqane:
Tel: 012 309 4381
Cell: 082 903 0120
James Moche:
Tel: 012 309 4804
Cell: 082 889 1519