No labour broking Bill this year

Changes to the Labour Relations Act (LRA) Bill will not be signed by the December deadline, since the draft has not made its way to Parliament yet.

Amendments are being made to the LRA, specifically regarding labour broking and its possible ban or regulation.

“No amendments have yet been finalised. The committee has made recommendations that will be effected by the Department of Labour (DOL) as soon as the report adopted by the committee is given a green light by Parliament,” said Parliament's labour committee chairperson, Lumka Yengeni, in March. She added that, upon getting the green light from Parliament, a Bill would be signed in at the end of the year.

Labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana had initially wanted the amendments to the LRA to be completed by April. This deadline was not met and now the legislation will most probably not materialise in time for the deadline indicated by Yengeni either, according to Democratic Alliance (DA) deputy shadow minister of labour Ian Ollis.

Ollis says the draft amendments were handed to Cabinet at the end of May and needed to reach Parliament by the end of July at the latest for the year-end deadline to be met.

He adds that the draft amendments are still with Cabinet and have not even been passed on to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) yet. “It has to go to Nedlac for the agreement of the various partners. Then it goes into the public domain for comment. Parliament gets it last.

“At the moment, we have nothing to review. We have no idea what's in it and Cabinet hasn't said what its objections were.”

Delays were caused because Cabinet did not wholeheartedly endorse the changes proposed by the labour committee and sent it back for redrafting, according to Ollis.

“I hear that they are now doing further studies on the impact of the potential new Act,” says Ollis.

Cosatu's national spokesman, Patrick Craven, says further delays in signing the Bill are very frustrating for the trade union. “We are disappointed. It's becoming extremely urgent to take action. Cosatu remains convinced that only the banning of labour broking completely will work but we still want to see what government is proposing.”

Ollis says the deadline was only realistic if the draft had made its way to Parliament by the end of July.

Cabinet is still working on it and Ollis suspects that it will take Nedlac a while to approve the changes as well.

The DA deputy shadow minister says Nedlac might reach a deadlock. He explains that the changes to the Act are not popular and Nedlac may say it can't agree, leading to a deadlock. There might be a backdoor agreement made that will speed the process up, according to Ollis.

The Department of Labour is proposing amendments to several Acts, which all fall under the Labour Relations Act, and section 198 (temporary employment services) specifically, according to Yengeni. The new amendments would either effectively abolish labour broking, or increase regulation of all temporary employment services.

“Business and labour are fighting over this and the ANC is mediating. Cosatu wants it banned and business wants it regulated. I agree with business. The more options you have, the better for the country,” notes Ollis.

He says the question is just in the detail. It's about whether the workers get benefits, support systems and medical aid, and some brokers don't provide this. “So clearly there is an argument for regulation.”

Initial proposed amendments by the DOL suggested the department is leaning toward regulation.

“The main intention here is to address the problem of labour broking, and making sure the abuse of workers is prohibited and contract work, subcontracting and outsourcing are regulated,” says Yengeni.