Growing consensus that labour bills will destroy jobs
Presentations made to the Labour Portfolio Committee today point to a growing consensus that the Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill will drastically increase the cost of doing business and destroy jobs.
Important points highlighted in today's submissions include:
- Concerns around the general effects of the bills on the financial viability and sustainability of employers;
- Limitations on deductions from employees' remuneration, which will pose a threat to medical aid schemes;
- Prohibitions on sub-contracting, which could harm Black Economic Empowerment initiatives;
- Concerns that undue increases in the minimum wage will incentivise employers to stick to minimum wage remuneration, effectively making the minimum wage the wage ceiling for unskilled workers.
We believe that a number of the amendments proposed will cost jobs, which is why we will continue to push for key amendments, including:
- Limiting the power of the Labour Minister by strengthening the role of the Employment Conditions Commission in setting umbrella sectoral determinations for workers;
- Retaining the right of employers to object to compliance orders issued by labour inspectors and orders issued by the director-general of labour;
- The total scrapping of regulation around temporary employment services (TES), which instates a 6-month limit on the length of temporary and contracted employment;
- The establishment of a self-regulating industry watchdog for TES involving the mandatory registration of all practitioners and the adoption of a code of conduct to be enforced by the board of the watchdog body;
- Calling for an unambiguous requirement for unions to ballot their workers before going on strike; and
- Opposing clauses giving unions the right to picket on a third party's property.
With unemployment currently sitting at 25.2% and youth unemployment at roughly 60%, we cannot afford legislation that will exacerbate the jobs crisis. The DA will do everything in its power to stop these job-killing proposals.
Statement issued by Sej Motau MP, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, July 24 2012
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