Times Live ~ Dec 18, 2010 7:38 PM | By BRENDAN BOYLE

The Department of Labour wants to radically redesign the workplace - and increase state surveillance in the corporate world. The Department of Labour has revealed a plan to radically redesign the work environment, enforcing equal pay for equal work and setting up a state employment agency to which every private sector job vacancy and every new hire will have to be reported.

Four bills released for public comment on Friday by the new minister of labour, Nelisiwe Mildred Oliphant, include measures to enhance job security, crack down on child labour and increase state surveillance in the world of work.

The bills, which were approved at the final cabinet meeting of the year, propose penalties of up to 10% of a company’s annual turnover for non-compliance and minimum jail terms of 12 months for employers who violate some of the proposed rules.

Ian Ollis, the Democratic Alliance spokesman on labour, said the package, if implemented in anything like its current form, would cost thousands of mainly temporary jobs.

“South Africa is already uncompetitive and the draft labour laws gazetted on Friday will send jobs to where labour laws are less restrictive,” he said.

Veteran labour analyst Andrew Levy said some of the provisions “make Alice in Wonderland look like a serious work of non-fiction” and could further undermine the government’s plan to create five million new jobs by 2020.

“The previous pattern of union friendly legislation is particularly enhanced once again. That may seem to be a good thing if you’re on that side of the fence, but by and large its not going to create a huge appetite for employment amongst our employers,” he said.

The centrepiece of the package, the Employment Services Bill, says, however, that the proposals will help to create and protect jobs and fight poverty.

“The strategic objectives will be achieved through institutional arrangements that the department will further establish to provide free services to citizens, such as registration of job seekers, registering of placement opportunities, matching services, referral to training and careers information,” it promises.

Amongst the proposed measures are the abolition of labour brokers over three years, an obligation to give workers doing similar or the same work the same pay and conditions, regulations largely eliminating the distinction between contract and permanent employment.

In a move possibly aimed at the Western Cape, proposed changes to the Employment Equity Act say that equity should be measured against the national population mix rather than regional ratios of black, coloured, Indian and white. This could force companies in the Western Cape to more aggressively recruit Africans at the expense of Coloureds.

Companies now required to report their achievements against equity targets every two years would have to report once a year under the proposed changes.

Amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act would tighten the ban on child labour, in part by changing the prohibition from the “employment” of anyone under 15 years of age to a ban on “work” by anyone in that age group.

In a measure apparently aimed at farmers, the amendment would make it illegal to penalise an employee who refuses to make his or her child available for any form of work.

Amongst the most far-reaching provisions is an amendment to the Labour Relations Act which states: “An employee must be employed permanently, unless the employer can establish a justification for employment on a fixed term.” Even where contract employment is allowed, these workers must be given the same rights, pay and conditions.

The only exception is a provision suspending many labour law rights during a six-month initial period of probation, which Levy said could help to counter some of the measures that would discourage hiring.

In other respects, the package torpedoes private sector optimism about increased flexibility, which was fuelled by a line in Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel’s new growth path calling for measures to support long-term competitiveness including “labour-market interventions”.

The new growth path also stressed the need to make it easier to set up and operate a business, but the labour package greatly increases the bureaucracy involved in doing business.

“It’s the old story of markets: over-regulate any market and you get a grey market or a black market. It will drive things further underground, we will end up with another whole series of avoidance strategies and the people who are most vulnerable will bear the brunt,” Levy said.

Ollis said the bill proposing a state employment agency was amateurish and would be unfair competition for private sector placement bureaus.

That bill proposes to set up a state labour bureau to which every employer in the public and private sectors would have to report every new vacancy and report every new hire.

While the state agency would provide its services free, the bills outlaw any form of payment by a employee for placement by a private agency and forbid any other form of reward for being given a job, including personal favours.

“This legislation represents a massive new administrative burden on both government and business, including small business, and will lead to only large institutional type players surviving at the expense of small business which should really be the growth engine of South Africa,” said Ollis.

Other measures proposed include:

The minister of labour would be empowered to create and enforce codes of practice for any sector not already covered if Nedlac, where business, labour and government meet, fails to agree a code within six months;

All employment agencies must be registered, can be deregistered by the minister of labour and may not charge work seekers in any way for their services.

Anyone earning above an amount to be determined by the minister of labour would not be allowed to use the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to settle a labour dispute;

Where workplace discrimination is alleged, it would be up to the employer to prove it did not take place;

The definition of an employer is expanded to include anyone who provides work, an employee is anyone who works for reward and a contract of employment is any form of agreement where one person agrees to do work for another;

Even where labour is provided through an agent, the person for whom the work is done must ensure the worker’s rights are met;