The South African government, bosses and some trade union federations (COSATU, FEDUSA, NACTU) have negotiated certain changes to the country’s labour laws.
The proposed labour law changes will have a significant impact on working class women. These changes will intensify the casualisation of work. This will lead to increased vulnerability and insecurity of women. Bosses and managers will, as they are currently doing, subject working class women to greater exploitation, sexual harassment, and oppression.
In the coming months, the government intends to enact these amendments into law. The Campaign to Scrap the Labour Amendment Bill urges the working-class, both employed and unemployed, young and old, women and men, to join the fight against these proposed changes!!
WHAT ARE THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS?
There are changes to the Labour Relations Act (LRA), the Code of Good Practice on Dismissal (new Draft Code on Dismissal), Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA) and Employment Equity Act (EEA). Here is a summary of the proposed amendments:
EASIER TO FIRE WORKERS
No need for a formal disciplinary hearing
- Presently, when a worker is charged with misconduct, the employer must investigate and hold a formal disciplinary hearing. The worker must be allowed to represent their case, call witnesses and cross-examine company witnesses.
- The proposed changes say that bosses do not have to arrange a formal disciplinary hearing to fire a worker. Bosses can merely ask a worker to write down why they should not be dismissed or even only have a conversation with the worker before dismissing them.
- According to the new amendments, small businesses do not even have to convene any kind of hearing (whether formal or informal).
- New workers and workers on probation can be fired for no reason, with no hearing. And in the first three months of employment, a newly employed worker can be fired without the boss giving any reason for the dismissal or following any disciplinary hearing procedures.
- Probation can be extended past three months and a worker on probation can be fired without any reason or the holding of a disciplinary hearing.
- A worker can be fired for unsuitability and incompatibility. (If the boss does not like them, they can say the worker does not fit in and fire them for being unsuitable and incompatible).
WORKERS CANNOT FIGHT UNFAIR PROMOTION and DEMOTION, and UNFAIR PROVISION OF TRAINING AND BENEFITS
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Presently, workers can declare unfair labour practice disputes over unfair promotion and demotion as well as unfair provision of training and benefits. With the new amendments, workers won’t be allowed to challenge these unfair actions anymore.
MAKING WORKERS CHEAPER FOR THE BOSSES
- The new amendments provide a two-year exemption for newly established businesses with a workforce of less than 50 employees from the obligation to pay the wages and conditions established by Bargaining Councils.
- What does this mean? For instance, if a metal factory owner opens a new factory and employs less than 50 individuals, this boss is not obliged to pay for a period of 2 years the Metal Bargaining Council’s minimum wage rate of R63,14 per hour. During this two-year period, the employer is only required to pay the national minimum wage rate of R 28,79 per hour, instead of the R63,14 per hour.
REGULATING ON-CALL WORKERS ( ZERO-HOUR WORKERS )
- The new amendments say they want to regulate zero-hour contracts. Zero hour workers must be available for work but are not guaranteed any hours.
- The new amendments say these workers must now have contracts that state the minimum and maximum hours of these workers. But the amendment is vague. It doesn’t say what the minimum hours are. The boss will still get to decide the hours.
- The amendments say zero hours or on-call workers will get one day’s paid sick leave for every 26 days worked. But this does not apply to employers who employ less than ten employees.
INCREASING THE SEVERANCE PAY FROM ONE WEEK TO TWO WEEKS PER YEAR OF SERVICE – BUT WITH A CATCH
- Retrenched workers will now get 2 weeks severance for every year of service - up from 1 week per year of service. But this only applies from the date the amendment becomes law. Therefore, older workers with long years of service will not benefit.
- For example, if a worker has 10 years’ service with a company by June 2025 and this amendment comes into law on the 1st Jan 2026 and the worker gets retrenched, they won’t get 2 weeks severance pay for all the years they served before 1 Jan 2026. The worker will only get one week per year for the time worked before 1st Jan 2026.
RESTORING THE NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE (NMW)
- A new amendment is being proposed that will take the calculation of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) back to what it was. The new amendment states that ‘deferred payments’ like contractual bonuses, provident fund contributions etc must be added on top of the NMW. (The bosses cannot deduct the costs of these from the NMW).
- This amendment is being made to correct a Labour Appeal Court ruling that said bosses could deduct the costs of ‘deferred payments’ from the NMW before paying the NMW to workers. This is a positive amendment. However, it will not solve the huge problem of non-payment of the NMW, that the NMW is extremely low, and workers have say in determining the NMW.
WORKING CLASS WILL FACE MORE PRECARIOUSNESS AND ABUSE
Impact on women
- Bosses will abuse the probationary period; the chances of getting permanent work will be far less; seasonal workers will easily be dismissed. Therefore, women are going to suffer most.
To ensure that their families and communities survive, women become vulnerable and this will be exploited by bosses and their managers. Already we have seen that labour brokering and shortterm contracts lead to women workers being abused and sex for jobs. This will increase. Women will be forced to avoid getting pregnant in order to keep a job and to accept long hours. If they refuse, their contracts could be terminated without a reason. This will mean that women will spend little time at home and in their communities, becoming strangers to the community, their neighbours and families, leading to a breakdown in family structures. The amendments will deepen poverty. Working class households are already experiencing high levels of food insecurity, children dropping out school, drug and alcohol abuse and high crime levels. And being the care-givers, women bear the brunt of these problems leading to high levels of depression, anxiety, and low esteem.
IMPACT ON THE YOUTH The youth will be trapped in a never-ending cycle of being in and out work. The bosses could employ young workers only to fire them without a reason or hearing within the first 3 months of employment. And then hire again young workers, only to fire them again within 3 months. The young workers will never have job security and will never be able to plan for a future. They will be forever trapped in a state of unemployment or under-employment and be at the mercy of exploitative bosses. These amendments will intensify the mental health problems of the youth – where depression, disillusionment and low self-esteem will continue to overwhelm the youth.
WE DEMAND:
- The scrapping of the labour law amendments
- Permanent jobs for all, no age restriction and no prior experience required
- EPWP, CHW, labour broker workers and casual workers to be made permanent
- Guaranteed minimum of 40 hours per week
- A living wage
- Equal pay for equal work
- UIF is to be amended to favour seasonal workers
- Retirement benefits for domestics workers
- Safe and respectful working environment
- Six months paid maternity leave, and an increase to paternity and family responsibility leave
- A living UIF for all the unemployed
- Increase the budget for the CCMA. We demand CCMA representation for allworkers, including domestic, farm and EPWP workers, most of whom are women
- Government subsidies for all creches, registered and unregistered
We call on the employed, unemployed, youth and women to join in the fight against these amendments and to struggle for these demand
Category: CAMPAIGN | SCRAP THE LABOURAMENDMENTS BILL
