Issued by Department of Labour
29 June 2000
We have invited you to attend this media briefing today to inform you of the Department of Labour's strategic plan for 2000 to 2004. It's successful implementation will, we believe, have a significant impact on the efficiency of the labour market and the quality of life of workers and the unemployed in this country over the next few years.
Earlier this morning I launched the strategic plan at a general staff meeting of the hundreds of public servants based at the Department's head office in Pretoria. This kicks off a national roadshow which I will be conducting over the next period involving managers and staff of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation Fund and in our provincial offices and labour centers.
The strategic plan is essentially a plan for accelerated delivery. It is a plan that will effect the commitments and the labour market programmes and priorities outlined in the Minister of Labour's 15-point programme for the next five years.
Its central emphasis is the effective implementation of legislation promulgated in government's first term of office to achieve government's labour market objectives and to ensure that the range of public services which the Department delivers are professional, client-orientated, and give full expression to government's Batho Pele campaign.
The new strategic plan will build on the firm foundations of the achievements of the first programme of action of the Ministry of Labour from 1994 and the Department's strategic plan from 1997-1999.
With the advent of democracy, the new government faced the challenge of redressing the imbalances of the past and setting in place new policies and programmes as envisioned in the reconstruction and development programme.
On this basis, an ambitious and far-reaching programme of action was developed to transform the labour market through the development of a new labour market legislative framework, institutions and programmes that would meet the requirements of a fundamentally distinct society and economy. In line with the internal transformation and reorientation of the Department, a new vision, mission, and values were developed.
Through the commitment and determined efforts of the staff of the Department of Labour and stakeholders, the successful achievement of the key pillars of the Ministry's first programme of action have indeed taken us closer to the realisation of our vision and mission.
It is against this backdrop that we undertook extensive consultations with labour market stakeholders to develop the Minister's fifteen-point programme of action and the Department's strategic plan for 2000-2004. This process concluded that our policy foundations are correct. In the next few years we will build on these foundations to create a labour market environment which will simultaneously reinforce efforts to make South Africa the world's leading emerging economy, fast-track job creation and address workers' welfare.
As we enter the new millennium, the Department is effectively positioned to ensure that it continues to transform the labour market, as articulated in our vision and mission; into a labour market which is conducive to social development and sustained economic growth, investment, productivity and job creation; one which is characterised by rising skills, equity, sound labour relations, respect for employment standards and worker rights.
Among the key priorities which the strategic plan commits the Department to address are the following:
Employment and Skills Development
The implementation of the skills development legislation to meet the skills needs of economic growth, contribute to job creation and improve the productivity and competitiveness of big and small enterprises, economic sectors and the nation as a whole. It will in addition, promote reconstruction and development and provide training which will give the unemployed, particularly women, youth and people with disabilities access to income generating opportunities.
Linked to this process, is the continued implementation of initiatives such as the Tourism Learnership Project and the Social Plan, to which we committed ourselves at the Job Summit.
The process of developing workplace and sector skills plans currently underway will culminate in the development of a National Skills Development Strategy for the country by the end of this year. The implementation of this strategy over the next few years will unleash a skills revolution which will have a dramatic impact on the world of work and the country's economy. The Department will play a leading role in the development and implementation of a broader Human Resource Development Strategy for the country, working in close cooperation with the Department of Education.
Vulnerable sectors
The Department of Labour will in the next few years be devoting special attention to measures to improve the plight of vulnerable sectors of society. In terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, sectoral determinations to set minimum wages and conditions of employment for farm and domestic workers are under development through a process of briefings, consultations, public hearings and research.
We are further determined to continue our efforts to eliminate child labour and will in the next few months, together with Stats South Africa, be releasing a Survey on the Activities of Young People, which will provide a comprehensive picture of the extent of child labour in our country.
Inspections and enforcement of the BCEA will be intensified, underpinned by capacity building and advocacy work.
Plans to enforce health and safety standards among vulnerable workers would also be implemented, while new policy was being developed to extend unemployment insurance and compensation coverage to domestic workers. The implementation of the Social Plan is proceeding apace to provide retrenchees with training to access income generating opportunities.
Employment Equity
The removal of unfair discrimination and the promotion of workplace equality to increase the participation of black people, women and the disabled in the economic life of our country will remain a priority.
The assertive implementation and enforcement of the Employment Equity Act will make an important contribution to labour market efficiency and stability. Racism and other forms of discrimination, apart from being morally reprehensible, hamper the efficiency of production and undermine labour relations, productivity and morale in the workplace.
The Department has established an Employment Equity registry of Equity Reports received from employer and will be providing feedback to employers in this regard.
Codes of Good Practice on HIV/Aids in the workplace, on disability and on human resource policies and practices are also being developed to facilitate the implementation of the Act.
Legislative review
The Department will be monitoring and reviewing our labour market policies on an ongoing basis to give effect to the Minister of Labour's commitment to ensure that these policies achieve the appropriate balance between labour market efficiency and decent labour standards, and maximise our impact on economic growth and job creation. This will be informed by indepth research and analysis, and the establishment of key performance indicators to assess the impact of the implementation of labour legislation. This will be a crucial tool to inform ongoing policy development and adjustments.
A key aspect of maintaining this balance between efficiency and worker welfare is the introduction of legislative amendments to the BCEA, the LRA, and the Insolvency Act which the president announced in parliament in February this year. The introduction of amendments follows the review of labour legislation which the Minister announced as part of his 15-point programme of action.
The review process concluded that our policy fundamentals are sound and in line with social and economic objectives. However, aspects of the LRA and the BCEA had led to unintended consequences which required adjustments in the form of amendments.
We have already made considerable progress in this regard. Ten days ago the Minister announced at the Nedlac Executive Council that the legal drafting process has been completed. The two Bills, the LRA and BCEA Amendment Bills are to be submitted to cabinet in July and the Minister will release the Bills for public comment, negotiation in Nedlac and, finally, for tabling in parliament.
This process is likely to feature prominently in our legislative programme in the first year of our Strategic Plan and is expected to be characterized by intense public debate.
It is critical that as we focus on specific aspects of the LRA and BCEA that are up for amendment that we do not lose sight of our other strategic priorities such as the effective implementation of the laws and programmes to promote skills development, stable labour relations, employment equity and the protection of vulnerable workers. These are at the heart of government's efforts to transform the labour market to address economic and social imperatives.
It would be a grave mistake to allow our efforts to refine labour law to more effectively address the objectives of labour market efficiency and job creation, to destroy the very foundations necessary to achieve these objectives.
Our determination to address negative consequences will therefore be equaled by our determination to implement and build on the considerable body of labour market legislation, policy, programmes and institutions which have indeed already and will increasingly have significant positive consequences in the labour market in the next five years.
The Department of Labour has an obligation to enforce the labour laws of this country. The introduction of legislative amendments should therefore not be interpreted as a weakening of our resolve to indeed do this.
While we will continue to adopt an approach which seeks to provide assistance and guidance to our social partners in enabling employers and workers to comply with the law, we are impelled to uphold the rule of law and we have the competence to do so in the interest of our economy and our people.
Since officials of the Department obviously cannot be everywhere at all times to enforce compliance, we will be targeting specific workplaces, sectors and industries to crack down on habitual offenders so to speak; those whose prey on the vulnerability of the unorganized and the weak and whose recalcitrance continues to be in blatant defiance of the law.
Occupational Health and Safety
The integration of occupational health and safety competencies across government will be another priority which the Department of Labour will spearhead in cooperation with the Departments of Minerals and Energy and Health, following a cabinet decision on the matter. A tripartite National Steering Committee of organised labour, business and government representatives is being set up to map out a new OHS policy framework to give effect to the decision.
The harmonisation of government's OHS policies has strong support from Cosatu, which agrees with government on the need for a comprehensive OHS policy framework and strategy which will be applicable in all the country's workplaces. In my meeting with a Cosatu delegation, they said that this vision is in line with the federation's own policy on OHS and will contribute to the maximum utilization of resources and the improvement of workers' health and safety.
Cosatu has also backed the Department's efforts to transform its inspection services to provide an integrated one-stop inspection service. The integrated inspection service includes generalist and specialist inspections and will ensure greater levels of efficiency and efficacy in the enforcement of OHS and other labour legislation.
New policy initiatives
New policy initiatives which the Department will spearhead over the next few years include the introduction and implementation of new legislation to restructure the UIF, extend unemployment insurance coverage to sectors of the workforce previously excluded, and ensuring the sustainability of the UIF. The new UIF Bill is already being negotiated in Nedlac and will thereafter be tabled in parliament.
The Compensation Fund will similarly be embarking on extensive initiatives to improve its operations, including the speedier and more efficient processing of claims, as well as policy initiatives on the compensation of workers who contract HIV/Aids through workplace accidents, the extension of coverage to domestic workers and compensation for post-traumatic stress, including sexual harassment.
Social partnership
The involvement of stakeholders in policy development and implementation will remain a common thread throughout the Department's programmes. The successful implementation of the strategic plan would be underpinned by a continued commitment to the strengthening of social partnership through institutions such as the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), the National Skills Authority (NSA), Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas), the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC), the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Internal transformation and restructuring
The successful implementation of these priorities outlined in our strategic plan will depend on the continued transformation of the Department and institutional and operational restructuring to achieve the Department's vision of service excellence.
In the development of this strategic plan, we conducted an internal staff survey which provided valuable insight into our strengths and weaknesses in areas such as management systems and policies, human resource and financial management, the utilisation of resources, organisational culture and perceptions, decision-making and communication.
An external survey was also conducted which affirmed that the Department of Labour has improved significantly since 1994. However, it also pointed to areas of weakness, including criticisms in the area of service delivery.
A central priority of the Department is therefore to consolidate and deepen our activities aimed at people-centred, client-oriented service delivery in line with government's vision of Batho Pele (People First). The values and principles of Batho Pele, which commit us to serve all South Africa's people, underpin our country's new coat of arms, which the president launched on Freedom Day this year.
Batho Pele is a commitment to:
I am determined to turn the Department's service delivery arms into centres of service excellence over the next few years. This will involve institutional and operational restructuring as well as a change in culture to provide efficient, effective, accessible and client-centred services. It will involve changing the way we do business.
Our service excellence strategy will involve a series of initiatives which we will be undertaking over the next few years.
We have initiated a far-reaching transformation of our 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 are in the process of restructuring and reorientation to deliver professional one-stop services to the public.
We have embarked on an extensive process resulting in service level agreements with specified service standards and timeframes on which our provincial offices are committed to deliver.
An important pillar 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.
This initiative was preceeded by a feasibility study which pointed to the PPP option as the most viable and cost-effective funding route and one which is 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 centres, 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, effective and efficient administration, staff capacity building and sound financial management. In this regard, our financial management systems are geared to ensure compliance with the Public Finance Management Act, the efficient and accountable utilization of public resources to achieve clearly defined labour market objectives, and the alignment of the Department's programmes and planning cycle with government's Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
Our strategic plan further aims to ensure that our Human Resource Management practices emerge 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, particularly in ensuring the effective implementation of the Employment Equity Act and the Skills Development Act within the Department.
Significant progress has 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, it must be noted that our progress in the promotion and appointment of people with disabilities has been inadequate. Only 1,43% of managers and 1,81% of staff are disabled.
The Department will 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.
The development of a Departmental skills development plan is underway. It's implementation is central to our maxim of working smarter and to ensuring that all our staff have the necessary skills and capacity to realise their full potential and to achieve the Department's objectives.
Conclusion
We believe that the successful implementation of this strategic plan will not only help us to achieve our vision of service excellence, it will improve the efficiency of our enterprises and our industries, the private and public sector, and indeed the productive capacity of our economy as a whole, which lies at the heart of our commitment to redefine ourselves as a nation at work for a better life for all South Africans.