MONDAY, 5.30PM
BUSINESS South Africa and Union federation Cosatu on Monday denied consensus had been reached on the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill.
Cosatu welcomed Labour Minister Tito Mboweni’s decision to place a revised Bill before Parliament, but cautioned that it wants further changes to the Bill and consensus has not been reached. “While we welcome new reformulations in certain areas, we want to place on record that it is our view that there is still no consensus on the core areas of meternity [leave], working hours, variation [of employment conditions] and child labour,” Cosatu said.
BSA rejected as “unacceptable” new proposals for the legislation, adding it is particularly unhappy with the proposed introduction of a statutory goal of a 40-hour working week, adding it had not been party to negotiations in drawing up the revised draft and expressed surprise at Labour Minister Tito Mboweni’s conclusion that sufficient consensus had been reached to permit it to be tabled in parliament. BSA said it will study the draft closely when it is released for comment, and will need to consider its position carefully “before responding comprehensively to the Bill as a whole”.
Meanwhile, the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut agreed with BSA, saying a statement by Mboweni on Sunday that sufficient consesus had been reached by business and labour on the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill is misleading. The AHI said it is amazed that Mboweni could declare that there was sufficient consensus when business had not been involved in the process. “On top of this the Congress of South African Trade Unions now says that they believe there is no consensus,” executive director Jacob De Villiers said.
MONDAY, 2.00PM
AN amended version of the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, released on Sunday and approved by a Cabinet committee last week, is expected to be tabled in Parliament during the final sitting. The revised bill will see the phasing in of a 40-hour work week addressed through collective bargaining, the statutory setting of conditions of work by an Employment Conditions Commission for unorganised labour, and an 18-month investigation into these issues on a national and sectoral basis.
Labour Minister Tito Mboweni said all parties have indicated that the bill is acceptable to them, and is significantly better than what exists at present. The amendments attempt to move closer to labour’s demands for a 40-hour working week, four months paid maternity leave and ensuring that minimum conditions of employment cannot be varied down if, on the whole, workers will become worse off.
While it remains unclear as to whether business and labour have reached sufficient consensus for the Bill to be passed later this year, the parties have given Mboweni an undertaking that they will respond today. As in the previous draft Bill, tabled in April, the jobs of women on maternity leave will be protected for four months. The question of payment and scope will be established by a ministerial task team investigating maternity benefits of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Those employees that do not contribute to the fund will not benefit.
Changes to the variation clause will allow parties to vary comditions of employment, but will grant the minister greater discretion to intervene in collective bargaining agreements. However, the amended provision restricts bargaining coucils from varying two new issues — two weeks’ annual leave and safety provisions for night work.
Mboweni, citing concern for millions of unorganised and vulnerable workers if the Bill is not passed, said if the current Basic Conditions of Employment Act were to remain in force, there would be no sanctioning of child labour, protection of part-time workers, or set minimum wages for domestic and farm workers.