Unscrupulous employment agencies will be brought to book with draft legislation published in the Government Gazette this week, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Wednesday.
”Recent cases of extreme exploitation and abuse in the domestic worker sector have highlighted the importance of addressing this matter,” said Sam Morotoba, head of sectoral education training authorities (Seta’s) in the Labour Department, at a news conference in Pretoria.
Proposed amendments to the Skills Development Act would give the department’s director-general the power to de-register agencies that contravened the law, he said.
Some agencies, for instance, charged jobseekers levies and then left them in the lurch, Morotoba said.
The draft law also included tighter measures to ensure that Seta’s performed according to expectations or did not misspend money allocated for their running costs and on outsourcing.
”We want Seta’s to train and skill the people of the country. We do not want the enrichment of a few who know where the till is,” said Mdladlana.
Morotoba said agencies would have to sign annual skills levels agreements. If they failed to honour that, the minister could issue certain instructions to them as an intermediate step to taking them over.
He said it was incumbent upon the Seta’s themselves and their sector to make them perform, but if that did not happen, it might be necessary to take them over.
There were some Seta’s whose performance possibly warranted such drastic action, he said.
”Now that we have that provision we can drive Seta’s threatened by take-over, to perform.”
Mdladlana said: ”This gives us the powers to pounce on them. We will watch them with an eagle’s eye.”
The draft legislation would be tabled in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) on Friday. – Sapa