The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) will march against labour broking tomorrow.
The North West branch of the federation will hold protest actions throughout the entire province to demand the banning of labour brokers.
“This action is part of the national action and part of the Cosatu campaign for decent jobs and a living wage.”
Cosatu says its actions will take the form of picketing, demonstrating and marching to specific offices.
The offices to be visited are mostly within the Department of Labour (DOL) and the municipalities.
The march will begin at 12h00 and is expected to end at 14h30.
“Cosatu calls on all its members and the community to attend, in particular the youth, as they are the ones worst hit by the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality.”
The federation adds this is also part of its build-up action to the anti-corruption march to the legislature on 13 October.
Abusive industry
In July, labour minister Nelisiwe Oliphant said the department will get R60 million to hire additional inspectors.
She suggested there will be no ban on labour broking and self-regulation of the industry was also not an option.
The minister said it will not be desirable to rely on self-regulation or codes of conduct to deal with the kind of abuses that have occurred with labour broking.
She also said there cannot be an outright ban of the industry since labour brokers are permitted by the law. “You can't just ban something that's in the legislation. The process is to amend. It's the abuse of that law that led to the amendments.”
Draft amendments to the Labour Relations Act (LRA), Basic Conditions of Employment Act and Employment Equity Act, and a new piece of proposed legislation - the Public Employment Services Bill - were published in the Government Gazette in December.
The amendments propose a repeal of section 198 of the LRA, which regulates labour brokers, effectively prohibiting labour broking and leading to job losses, according to Democratic Alliance (DA) labour shadow minister Ian Ollis.
2012 decision
The matter is before the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), where the DOL says discussions around the amendments are going well.
Oliphant added that Nedlac will table the Bills in Parliament by no later than the first quarter of next year.
The minister explained that the reason workers are still calling for a ban on labour brokers, like the engineering sector currently is, is because they don't have the right information.
She said federations must constantly inform their constituencies about the progress being made at Nedlac and if they do, there won't be threats of strikes.
Crippling ban
The DA and organised business opposed a ban of labour broking and called for greater regulation instead.
An outright ban on labour broking would harm the ICT services sector, as it would push up operating costs, hamper bottom line profits, and could worsen the sector's current skills shortage, according to analysts.
However, Cosatu has endorsed the amendments, saying labour broking is a new form of slavery and needs to be banned completely. It says it will continue to insist that nothing less than a total ban will be acceptable.
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