PROPOSED changes to labour legislation that aims to end casual worker brokers, are a long way from becoming law and are open to debate, a senior Labour Department official said in Cape Town yesterday
Thembinkosi Mkalipi, a department manager presiding over the first day of public hearings on proposed amendments to labour laws, said if problems were found in the proposed amendments there was ample time to fix them.
"The issue of these laws being badly drafted is the least of our worries. They are nowhere near going to Parliament yet.
"We have numerous meetings scheduled with Nedlac (the National Economic Development and Labour Council) about these changes to the laws. They are open to debate and if we all agree we will fix them."
Mkalipi said he saw no reason why two people doing the same job, one of them hired through a labour broker, should not both be employed permanently.
"If you have one worker who is employed full-time and he or she is making chairs, and then you hire a labour broker to hire someone to also make chairs, it doesn't make sense," Mkalipi said.
"They should both be employed as full-time workers. Public feedback was balanced by those for the amendments and those against.
"There are some who are for them and some who are against. Let's give this process time and see what happens."
On Monday DA labour spokesperson Ian Ollis said the four labour bills were "shockingly badly drafted" and had the potential to cause hundreds of thousands of job losses.
"The four bills that have been announced by the Zuma administration need to be halted in their tracks until the array of problematic provisions they contain are removed," he told a media briefing at Parliament.
Ollis said the bills, if promulgated, would create relatively few new permanent and "potentially unionised" posts, but would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs in the South African economy.
Proposed change to labour law not final
PROPOSED changes to labour legislation that aims to end casual worker brokers, are a long way from becoming law and are open to debate, a senior Labour Department official said in Cape Town yesterday
Thembinkosi Mkalipi, a department manager presiding over the first day of public hearings on proposed amendments to labour laws, said if problems were found in the proposed amendments there was ample time to fix them.
"The issue of these laws being badly drafted is the least of our worries. They are nowhere near going to Parliament yet.
"We have numerous meetings scheduled with Nedlac (the National Economic Development and Labour Council) about these changes to the laws. They are open to debate and if we all agree we will fix them."
Mkalipi said he saw no reason why two people doing the same job, one of them hired through a labour broker, should not both be employed permanently.
"If you have one worker who is employed full-time and he or she is making chairs, and then you hire a labour broker to hire someone to also make chairs, it doesn't make sense," Mkalipi said.
"They should both be employed as full-time workers. Public feedback was balanced by those for the amendments and those against.
"There are some who are for them and some who are against. Let's give this process time and see what happens."
On Monday DA labour spokesperson Ian Ollis said the four labour bills were "shockingly badly drafted" and had the potential to cause hundreds of thousands of job losses.
"The four bills that have been announced by the Zuma administration need to be halted in their tracks until the array of problematic provisions they contain are removed," he told a media briefing at Parliament.
Ollis said the bills, if promulgated, would create relatively few new permanent and "potentially unionised" posts, but would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs in the South African economy.
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