Presentation to Portfolio Committee on Economic Development Tuesday 13th October 2009

LABOUR LAW REVIEW The context for a review and recommended amendments relates to a number of factors that Include: Experience in implementing legislation that has highlighted certain problem areas in law and in its administration;

LABOUR LAW REVIEW Court rulings and developments in case law that have pointed to necessary changes and areas for clarification in labour legislation, and; Align our legislation with the changes in the labour market. Changes to the LRA to deal with the growth of temporary employment services and labour brokers are being dealt with separately in a parallel process and are not addressed in the following.

Temporary Employment Services (Labour Brokers) South Africa has seen a considerable growth of temporary employment services or labour brokers. Labour brokers undermine provisions of the law dealing with: Minimum wages and collective agreements, Health and Safety provisions, Right of workers to freedom of associations; and Job security.

To address these challenges the legislative amendments will consider: Addressing the problem of labour broking and to prohibit abusive practices(S23 of the Constitution provides that “Every person shall have the right to fair labour practices”; Shift the responsibility back to the main employer. Possible amendments will include definitions of ‘Employer” and ‘workplace”; discrimination and organisational rights.

Sub-contracting and outsourcing: Legislation should spell out more clearly how a client employer may be held to be a joint employer in cases where it exercises a substantial degree of control over sub-contracting and/or outsourcing arrangements. Applying principles of equality and non-discrimination to non-standard employees: The anti-discrimination provisions of the Employment Equity Act should be amended to provide an effective remedy for unjustified discrimination in wages and working conditions on the basis of contractual arrangements in terms of which employees are engaged. This should include discrimination between employees placed by a temporary employment service and direct employees as well as discrimination by employing non-standard employees on less favourable terms and conditions than full-time employees.

Thank you.