ATT: THE EDITOR – Business Day
Email: busday@bdfm.co.za

Last week a new piece of labour legislation became effective.  This legislation has very noble aims as it is trying to improve productivity in South Africa and to train unskilled workers, however, as we all know, the road to destruction is often paved with good intentions. Already it is interesting to note that although it’s become effective the Department of Labour has already excluded one of the most important sections and has not even put out regulations which normally would act as the practice guidelines in the actual implementation.  Furthermore the government through the Department of Labour is trying to emulate placement agencies by matching up job seekers with vacancies in the private sector.  Those of us who are involved in the labour law field will very quickly tell you that various departments within the Department of Labour are not only slow and cumbersome but are on some occasions completely useless.  For instance the Workmens Compensation offices are almost impossible to deal with.  This Employment Services Act is setting up the Department of Labour for failure.  Although it is extremely important to ensure that the recruitment is smoothly done and that unemployed persons are up skilled these tasks would be far more efficiently and properly handled in the private sector.  More insidiously employers in various industries will be required to register vacancies with the public employment service and these employers in turn may have to interview people recommended by the Department of Labour.  This tortuous exercise may result in one or two employment opportunities and it remains to be seen how much it will cost the Department and in turn the tax payer.

It is understood that South Africa is becoming desperate to create jobs and opportunities for the unemployed.  The labour legislation is becoming more onerous and convoluted.  Those of us at the coal face of the implementation of the labour law have been calling for years for the government to ease up on the regulations so as to enable the private sector to create jobs especially in small businesses.  The very nature of The Employment Services Act is doing exactly the opposite where it creates more paperwork and more problems.

Michael Bagraim