DEL, CCMA & UIF 2021/22 Annual Performance Plans briefing with Minister & Deputy Minister

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Employment and Labour

05 May 2021
Chairperson: Ms M Dunjwa (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Annual Performance Plans

In a virtual meeting, the Department of Employment and Labour, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) presented their 2020-25 Strategic Plans and 2021/22 Annual Performance Plans to the Portfolio Committee.

Members heard that the Department of Employment and Labour strives for a labour market which is conducive to investment, economic growth, employment creation and decent work. It has annual targets across key programmes namely: Administration; Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES), Public Employment Services and Labour Policy and Industrial Relations (LP&IR).Significant annual targets include ensuring that vacant funded posts were maintained at 3% or less every quarter, 296 904 employers were inspected per year to determine compliance with employment law and 800 000 work-seekers were registered on employment services of South Africa per year. Members asked the Deputy Minister if there were plans to challenge the Finance Minister given that service delivery ‘was at an all-time low’. Members were concerned about persons with disabilities. The Committee said that one of the slides mentioned that the aim of the Department was to increase the level of employment for people with disabilities by at least 1½ % but six years ago the target had been to increase employment by three percent and this was not achieved. They asked how the Department could have such targets when it has been struggling for a while to get the people with disabilities represented. Members asked the Strategic and Annual Performance Plans presented had an impact on the ordinary worker in the peripheries of the country; if the capacity building was done only with newly recruited employees; and if the online platforms had the potential to eliminate labour brokers which the public had been complaining about. When asked about Labour Brokers the Department said that Employment Services of South Africa (​ESSA) services were going to replace labour brokers, the ESSA system is a system where one registers people and then matches them to opportunities. In the process, candidates are recommended to Employers’ recruitment processes. Members asked how the Department of Labour and Employment would achieve its annual targets given the budget cuts.

On the budget cuts the Minister said that the Department was in the process of ensuring that resources are allocated to meet political priorities and to make sure that the quality of spending is done within sustainable fiscal limits. Through the process of budgeting, a large number of institutions plan, collaborate, negotiate and decide together on the comprehensive plan for spending the resources.

The Committee was briefed by the CCMA whose mandate was to give effect to everyone’s Constitutional rights and freedom. Its key annual targets include: improving employee turn-over rate by 100% annually up to 2024 and ensuring effective essential services dispute management prevention and resolution. The CCMA has maintained previous targets before budget cuts although there are areas with slight adjustments because of the budget cuts. The Department worked hard to cushion the CCMA and as such they are the entity least affected by the budget cuts. Members appreciated the CCMA for aiming to take a customer centered approach. They asked if the CCMA was ready for an increase in disputes between employers and employees considering that the Covid-19 pandemic had increased the tensions between employers and employees. Members asked if the CCMA had a plan for addressing these tensions. Members heard that the Department had a Dispute Management and Prevention Programme where the aim of the programme includes going out and targeting certain employers and engaging them around the issues of contention.

The Committee was briefed by the UIF. The UIF provides social security to its contributors. The UIF has set out targets across all its programmes namely: Administration, Business Operations, and Labour Activation. Members heard that the UIF funds national employment schemes with funds vested via the PEC into socially responsible investment. In labour activation programmes where there are proposals made to the UIF to fund, this fund is linked to employment creation. Members heard that the UIF funds national employment schemes with funds vested via the PEC into socially responsible investment. In labour activation programmes where there are proposals made to the UIF to fund, this fund is linked to employment creation.

Meeting report

The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Ms Boitumelo Moloi, was present.

Department of Employment and Labour (DEL): 2020/25 Strategic Plan and 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan

Ms Nolukholo Sigaba, Chief Director: Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation Unit, DEL, made the presentation to the Committee. She said that the key annual targets under its administration programme were:

-Ensuring that vacant funded posts maintained at 3% or less every quarter;

- 45% of SMS positions occupied by women;

- Increase systems availability to 98%;

- 93% resolution of reported incidents by disciplinary and criminal interventions;

- Number of Annual Financial Statements (AFS) and Interim Financial Statements (IFS) compiled per year that comply with guidelines issued by the National Treasury and

- 100% reporting of the detected occurrences.

Key targets in the Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) programme were:

-296 904 employers inspected per year to determine compliance with employment law;

- 90% of non-compliant employers of those inspected served with a notice in terms of relevant labour legislation within 14 calendar days of the inspection;

-65% of non-compliant employers received by Statutory Services referred for prosecution within 30 calendar days; and

-two to four advocacy sessions conducted per year to increase awareness of employment law.

Key annual targets in the Public Employment Services were:

-800 000 work-seekers registered on Employment Services of South Africa per year;

-100 000 employment opportunities registered on the Employment Services South Africa per year;

-230 000 of registered work-seekers provided with employment counselling per year; and

- Registered employment opportunities filled by registered work seekers per year.

Key annual targets under the Labour Policy and Industrial Relations (LP&IR) were:

- EEA amendments finalised by 31 March 2022;

- 2020-2021 Annual Employment Equity Report and Public Register published by 30 June 2021;

- Code of good practice on elimination of harassment and violence in the world of work published by 31 March 2022;

- Review of the National Minimum Wage level by 31 March 2022;

- 100% of collective agreements assessed and verified within 180 working days of receipt by 31 March 2022;

- 100% of labour organisation’s applications for registration approved or refused within 90 working days of receipt by 31 March 2022;

- Reports on the implementation of bilateral cooperation and multilateral obligations signed off by the Minister annually;

- Annual labour market trend reports produced and

- Research reports and 2 data collection instruments in line with RME Agenda produced by 31 March

2022.

[see presentation attached for further details]

Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA): 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan

Ms Mashaakgomo Kedibone, Chief Financial Officer, CCMA, took Members through the presentation. The CCMA forecasts that with the current increase in the unemployment rate from 23.3% in the second quarter of 2020 to 30.8% in the third quarter of 2020, the CCMA may endure a subsequent increase in its case load in unfair dismissal disputes from employers who can no longer afford the financial strain and retrenchment referrals. It is also envisaged from the projections ran that there could be further increase in the rate of unemployment of up to 36% in the second quarter of 2021.

Key annual targets for the CCMA across its administrative programmes are:

- enhancing financial viability for organisational sustainability;

- Improving employee turn-over rate by 100% annually up to 2024;

- Improving ICT Service quality;

Key annual targets under the proactive and relevant labour market intervention programme are:

- enhancing dispute management and prevention;

- improving workplace relations and

-ensuring effective essential services dispute management prevention and resolution

Challenges

- The CCMA’s statutory mandate will not be fully achieved as matters referred will only be executed based on available resources, which is 57% of the total budget required for the Part Time Commissioners. This might impact the CCMA on meeting the statutory obligation of conciliating matters within 30 days, rendering awards within 14 days.

- The CCMA will also experience delays in allocating dates for matters to be heard and fulfilling the discretionary mandate and possible increase in litigation costs resulting from matters not set or part- heard.

- Information technology enhancements projects have been placed on hold. Some of the projects placed on hold were planned for enhancing services delivery to ensure that the labour market is served expeditiously.

-Terms and conditions of staff employment were affected negatively by the budget cuts, as the entity will not meet all expected conditions related to staff employment, such as salary increases and performance bonuses.

- Existing human resources are expected to be stretched even further with high fatigue levels, leading to increased absenteeism and lower productivity. The recruitment process of all vacancies within the organisation was placed on hold. This decision will impact critical vacancies, skills retention, and succession planning of the organisation.

- The budget reduction also has an impact to contractual obligations, as the government grant allocation is aligned to expenditure growth.

[see presentation attached for further details]

Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF): Annual Performance Plan 2021/2022

Ms Marsha Bronkhorst, Acting Commissioner, UIF, took Members through the presentation. The UIF has set out targets across all its programmes namely: administration, business operations, and labour activation. Some of the key targets in administration programmes are:

-30% reduction of wasteful and fruitless expenditure;

-20% reduction of irregular expenditure;

-not more than 15 % cost of Administrative expenditure;

-all valid invoices paid within 30 Calendar days after receipt;

- Percentage of vacancy rate maintained at not more than 9%;

-ensure over 2% of persons with disabilities employed in line with Employment Equity Act;

-ensure over 75% representation of Africans in Senior and middle management levels maintained in line with Employment Equity Act;

-replacement of Siyaya with SAP system;

-creation of 5000 jobs through UIF Funding and Investment initiatives;

- resolve all internal and external audit findings; 

-90% of cases finalized (simple cases finalized within 30 working days complex cases within 90 working days and COVID-19 cases within 60 working days);

- Ethics and Transformation Committee established and 2 reports on the functioning of the Committee produced and approved by the UIC.

The key targets in the business operations programme:

-80 000 newly registered employers;

-860 000 newly registered employees;

-95% of new companies with complete, accurate and verified information created with registration document (UI 54) within specified timeframes;

-90% of applications with complete, accurate and verified information issued with compliance certificates, tender letters or non-compliance letters within specified timeframes;       

-95% of complete, accurate and verified benefit payment documents created after receipt within specified time frame;

-90% of valid claims (Unemployment benefit) with complete, verified and accurate information approved or rejected within specified time frames;

-92% of valid claims (In-service benefits; maternity, illness and adoption benefits) with complete, verified and accurate information approved or rejected within specified time frames; and

-92% of valid claims (Deceased benefit) with complete, verified and accurate information approved or rejected within specified time frames

The key targets for the labour activation programme are:

-12 210 youths participating on Public Employment Programmes.

-90% temporary Employer Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) applications approved / rejected by the delegated authority within 15 working days;

-40 700 UIF contributors provided with learning opportunities;

-30 Cooperatives supported; and

-15 SMMEs supported.

[see presentation attached for further details]

Discussion

Mr M Bagraim (DA) said the Department of Labour and Employment had a pitiful year with growing unemployment and little service delivery; and the destruction of the CCMA and the UIF. The National government had an impact in this through the budget cuts. He asked the Deputy Minister if there were plans to challenge the Finance Minister. He said service delivery was at an all-time low.

Section 9 of Slide 4 mentioned the aim to ensure equal access to opportunities but there is no equal access to the facilities of the Department. One of the aims of the CCMA is to go online which would cut out the poor who are struggling. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and Trade Unions have reported on the struggles of the workers.

Regarding the speedy labour justice that is mentioned in the same slide (Slide 4 of Section 9), it would be difficult to achieve because the budget cuts had significantly affected labour justice.

He said that Slide 6 shows that the mission of the Department includes inspection and enforcement but the inspectors have very little tools of the trade.

He said that Slide 22 mentioned the aim of the Department was to increase the level of employment for people with disabilities by at least one and a half percent but six years ago the target had been to increase employment by three percent but that was not achieved. He asked how the Department could have such targets when it has been struggling for a while to get the people with disabilities represented. He said that it was only the national government which was employing people with disabilities but not departments.

Slide 28 set a target of 93% resolution of reported incidences by disciplinary and criminal interventions against fraud cases at UIF but there were no reports on existing cases.

Slide 29 set a target of 100% reporting detected incidences in the first quarter but there are no reports on consequence management.

Regarding slide 43 which mentioned the code of good practice against harassment and violence which is to be published by 31 March 2022, he asked why the publication of this document was being delayed considering that the President had already publicly endorsed it.

Dr M Cardo (DA) asked regarding the statements made in the presentation that the Department did not tolerate fraud and corruption, he enquired on the seven officials that were implicated at the UIF by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on fraud and corruption charges related to Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS). The disciplinary hearings were meant to be conducted at the end of February but there have not been any reports on the outcome.

One of the slides showed that the number of employers inspected for compliance to employment laws in the first quarter were 74 226 inspections while in quarter four it was 296 904. He asked what explained the vast discrepancy between inspections in quarter one and quarter four. He asked how the Department was going to conduct a remote inspection of workplaces given the budget cuts.

One of the Department’s targets was to contribute 256 000 youth jobs by 2024 to the grand total of 1 million youth jobs. He asked what these jobs where.

Ms C Mkhonto (EFF) asked if the Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan presented had an impact on an ordinary worker in the peripheries of the country. One of the targets was to fill vacancies and there were plans to conduct capacity building and training. She asked if the capacity building was done only with newly recruited employees. She suggested the Department have a small budget to conduct the capacity building work with existing employees.

On the online services that were presented, she asked if the online platforms have the potential to eliminate labour brokers which the public has been complaining about. She requested the Department provide the addresses of the Supported Employment Enterprises (SEE) factories. The presentation mentioned that there would be additional employment by 31 March 2021, that date has already passed, and this was to be reported in retrospect.

The Chairperson said that she appreciated the SEEs for being innovative; she was keen to know the new products that the SEEs were producing. She asked if the bail out that the Department was going to provide was a once off or if it was going to be dependent on their financial status.

Mr Thobile Lamati, Director-General (DG), DEL, said the bailout would depend on the financial performance of the entity. There are set targets of sales to be achieved by end of the year and those sales are dependent on availability of work for the factories and if government departments would support the entities. When that happens, sales will increase which provides a basis for requesting more financial support. Except in special circumstances as the case was when the Department had to aid a factory to improve its Information Communication Technology (ICT) department, the financial assistance is usually a once-off.

Regarding the question on whether the targets presented in the strategic plan and the Annual Performance Plan impact the ordinary worker in the periphery, the work that the Department did impacted on the lives of ordinary workers. To illustrate this he said that in quarter four, the Department made a presentation on the number of complaints received and the amount of money recovered which was more than R2 million which was the result of the work that the Department is doing. That R2 million has ensured that workers that were not paid their dues fairly were supported. The people that are employed are also assisting seven more people with the wages that those people earned which has an impact. The labour activation programme has an impact and during the first hard Covid-19 lockdown there were young people who were part of the programme and because of the lockdown they could not attend classes, but the Department continued to provide them with a stipend because of the role of the stipend in the lives of the young people which does have an impact.

All the training provided by the Department is internal training for internal staff including induction and every member of the Department is inducted when they join the Department. This provides a recap for every member of the Department so that every member is aware of their responsibilities.

He said the Department was going to provide the physical addresses of the factories to the Portfolio Committee.

Responding to the question on the disciplinary outcomes against seven UIF officials who were charged, the disciplinary hearing was continuing and once finalised the Department was going to brief the Committee of the outcome. The sanctions that will be recommended by the Chairperson of the disciplinary committee would be implemented accordingly.

In response to the question on the jobs that are created by the Compensation Fund (CF) and the UIF he said that part of the job creation mandate of the Compensation Fund is that of providing jobs in the Health sector. Part of the investments made is towards creating jobs in the Health sector. The UIF has the responsibility to assist beneficiaries of UIF to bring them back into the labor market. The Department assists job seekers with both permanent employment and with temporary employment in different sectors such as construction and manufacturing.

Regarding the comments on the performance of the Department in the financial year as being shameful and pitiful, he said he did not know how to respond to that. The UIF had an excellent performance with a disbursement of over R60 billion to assist distressed workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. An economist commenting on the employment rate announced by the Statistician General shows that there is consensus that had UIF not made this intervention, the situation would have been worse. The funds that were used by the UIF were funds that were invested to deal with situations like the one they were used for. The CF played an important role in making sure that workers who contracted the Covid-19 virus at the workplace were compensated working in conjunction with Rail Mutual Association and Federated Employment Mutual Association (FEMA). If one compares the national Covid-19 cases with the workplace rate of infection results show that the rates are lower at the workplace. Due to the interventions that the Department came up with the risk of more Covid-19 infections at the workplace were averted.

The presentation by the CCMA will show the adjustments that the entity has made in order to cope with the budget cuts. In critical areas the CCMA has maintained previous targets before budget cuts although there are areas with slight adjustments because of the budget cuts.

Although it is important for the CCMA to have adequate resources, it is also important to consider the overload that the CCMA must deal with. That overload is because of the failure of employers and employees to resolve their disputes at the workplace and the CCMA must continue to fund the consequences of that failure. Due to the budget cuts the CCMA will face challenges in dealing with labour market failures. Businesses are also complaining about this situation although they are doing very little proactively to resolve disputes at the workplace. The people who are destroying the CCMA are the ones who are flooding it with unnecessary cases which they would have dealt with at the factory floor or at the workplace level.

Responding to the question of whether there are plans to get the budget restored, he said the Department continues to engage the National Treasury, and the situation would have been worse if the Department had not resisted a bigger budget cut. The National Treasury had suggested a 20% budget cut and the Department engaged with the National Treasury which resulted in a budget cut of just over 7%. The Department worked hard to cushion the CCMA and as such they are the entity least affected by the budget cuts. The Medium-Term Expenditure Framework does not suggest that the Department will have its budget restored. The budget for the current financial year and the following financial years is nowhere near where it was before the budget cuts.

Regarding the question on equal access to opportunities, he said that the CCMA has made adjustments and the Department will be facilitating discussions with the CCMA that it makes use of the Department of Labour offices. In areas where the CCMA does not have the Department of labour offices, the Department has provided space for the CCMA to do its work. There are plans to make sure that the people in peripheral areas do not go to the CCMA but rather to the office of the Department and get access to the services they would have required from CCMA. The target is to limit disruptions to the recipients of the Department’s services.

The budget cuts do not mean that the Department must not plan. The Department must plan and the plans must be based on the limited resources that were available and the ability to stretch resources to achieve the maximum impact on the people that are served. All targets including labour justice are there to make sure that even in the context of budget cuts improvisation is possible and objectives are achieved.

The inspection enforcement services do exist and the impact of their work is felt by the companies that they have been visited by. Although they are not everywhere, they do exist; the Department has been to workplaces and conducted inspections. The inspectors ensured that the workers that were not paid minimum wage were paid the national minimum wage. 

Whenever there are fraud cases and investigations are done there is need to wait for the outcomes of those cases so that a fair process is followed. There is no point in rushing and violating the law. Once the disciplinary process is done it will be followed by a sanction that is recommended by the presiding officer; the Department then implements the sanctions. If the outcome of the disciplinary hearing mandates the Department to effect a certain sanction there is no reason for the Department not to implement the sanctions.

On the code of good practice, there are processes that need to be followed and these processes sometime take time. The Department has submitted to Parliament the Convention 190 so that the Convention can be ratified. The ratification of that Convention would be given effect by the code of good practice because the code is aligned to the Convention. The code of good practice has been sent out to the public to receive public comments and it must go back to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) for further processing. It is difficult to stipulate dates because it is hard to know how long it would take to get the code of good practice completed.

Mr Sam Morotoba, Deputy Director-General: Public Employment Services, DEL, in response to the question on the Department’s reach to communities, said the Department has 126 labour centers. Of the 126 labour centers, 64 of them are fully functional with a self-service device that people can go to and get online services, and the 62 are part of the labour centers that are still busy and the delay was due to security concerns and that’s the reason why the Department could not install the equipment. There are also 470 visiting points over and above the 76 satellites that the Department operates from. The Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) has over 530 people at national and provincial level servicing the entire country.

On the question of whether the Employment Services of South Africa (​ESSA) services were going to replace labour brokers, the ESA system is a system that you register people and then match them to opportunities. In the process, candidates are recommended for employer’s recruitment processes. It is not a regulatory measure but rather information and technology system. The labour brokers are regulated under the Employment Services Act. Currently, labour brokers do not exist in legislation. They are normally referred to as private employment agencies and temporary employment agencies. These are also regulated in terms of the Labour Relations Act. The Department registers services organisations and publishes their names on the Department’s website so that people can verify them. The Department cannot bend the conventions passed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that require that the Department works with these organisations and that is why the Department regulates these employment agencies.

Regarding the implementation of the 24 mobile units; the Minister made a commitment to have them by end of November. However due to unforeseen circumstances the launching of these units was delayed. The Department had to wait up to the new financial year so that the It could procure some of the required units and to get the services ready. The transfer of the funds to pay for the mobile units was also delayed by the National Treasury. The Department is now in the process of waiting for the Treasury to transfer funding so that the procurement of the mobile units can happen.

On the SEEs, the Department runs a programme which was very successful such that Treasury doubled the allocation of funding to that program. In this programme, the Department offers subsidies across ten organisations across the country which employs people with disabilities. The subsidies that had initially been at R850, currently stands at R1 250 because those people also benefit under the social grant scheme.

He said that the Department was pleased to showcase the mobile units when the Committee could afford a visit to the factories. Masks, TV stands, chairs that can be used in the houses and the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses are having a high intake of some of the units because the furniture is custom made for those kinds of houses. The Department is receiving requests for those units.

He said that the Department was free to circulate the addresses of the factories however, in Durban there was a factory that was damaged by a storm and the Department of Public Works will take about two years to repair that factory because of the extent of the damage. The Department was currently looking for alternative accommodation because it may be forced to lay off its workers, something which the Department does not want to do.

The Department had to stall the process of Mpumalanga expansion because it did not want to repeat what had happened in Sisiku where reserves were used to expand Sisuku by buying new machinery and new trucks. Expanding Mpumalanga would mean going for once off cash injections so that there are factories across all provinces. On the list with the physical addresses of the factories that will be provided to the Committee, regarding Durban, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, the above-mentioned challenges will be noted.

The Chairperson asked about the provinces under which the SEEs were being established so that the Committee could visit.

Ms Aggy Moloi, Deputy Director-General: Inspection and Enforcement Services, DEL, responding to the question of the impact of the Department on ordinary employees said that although the work was seemingly activity-based it has a lot of impact on employees. The 2019/2020 financial year where a full analysis has been done shows that for the minimum wage the Department recovered was in excess of R105 million. This is money that benefited vulnerable people. The Department recovered over R40 million for the same period. In the 20/21 financial year, the Department’s annual target was 180 000 and in the current financial year the annual target was R296 000 which is in excess of 100 000 workplaces more that are going to be inspected. For the footprint of the workplaces that were inspected in the 19/20 financial year, it’s over 230 000 workplaces that the inspectors have gone out and inspected. In the next five years, the target is to have visited a million companies.

Dr Cardo asked on the discrepancy between quarters one and quarter four in inspections to be conducted. In quarter one the target is under 75 000 while in quarter four, the target is under 300 000. He asked for clarity as to why there was a big discrepancy between the quarters.

He asked on the feasibility of having May inspections given the budget cuts. He enquired on what remote inspections entailed and how these are carried out.

The Deputy DG responding to the question of why there was a big difference between the number of inspections in the first quarter and those of the fourth quarter said the 296 000 was the annual target and the reporting is cumulative such that the quarter one target gets built up into the quarter four target.

There are inspections that could be provided supplementary remotely. For instance in the employment equity space what was normally done was analysis of employment equity plans upon visiting workplaces and reports would also consider documents regarding representations of forums. The Department can source the documents without necessarily going to the workplace itself. It is also possible to conduct meetings with interested parties and key stakeholders with those workplaces remotely. Another supplementary measure that could be undertaken prior to going out for an inspection is to request administrative documents such as risk assessments some of which are bulky depending on the nature of the workplace. This assists in profiling the workplace such that it reduces the number of days that you would ordinarily spend had preparatory administrative work been done remotely.

Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, said regarding budget cuts downplaying of the role of the Department, the process of ensuring that resources are allocated to meet political priorities and to improve the quality of spending is done within sustainable fiscal limits. Through the process of budgeting, a large number of institutions plan, collaborate, negotiate and decide together on the comprehensive plan for spending the resources.The 2021 budget was difficult because of the pandemic and it was a product of consultation. There were processes of serious negotiations among various political actors and bureaucrats and it was not an easy exercise. The government had to announce an economic support package of R500 billion militating against the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of the Corona virus required an extraordinary corona virus budget so that resources could be directed towards fighting the pandemic and this forced the government across or departments to do a reprioritisation and hence there were budget cuts in some areas. The President announced an economic strategy, The Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, which was implemented to jumpstart the recovery of the economy of the country.

 All programmes were impacted negatively and it was difficult to determine how to make the budget cuts and where to cut but it had to happen. There were programmes whose budgets were cut by more than 5% but the circumstances forced this situation with the understanding that as the economic circumstances improved there would be adjustments. With the Economic Plan the aim is to start collecting more revenue. The billions which workers contributed including the employers to UIF cannot be downplayed.

The Chairperson said that the Members had the responsibility of persuading the Department of Finance through processes outlined by Parliament such as the Budget Vote. She said that it was not only the responsibility of the Department or the Ministry but Members had a responsibility too.

Ms Mkhonto asked for clarity on the UIF’s funding of employment schemes.

She appreciated the CCMA for aiming to take a customer centered approach. She asked if the unemployment data that was presented on was the same as the data that the Committee had received from Statistics South Africa or its data that the CCMA itself had gathered.

She asked if the CCMA was ready for an increase in disputes between employers and employees considering that the Covid-19 pandemic had increased the tensions between employers and employees.

The Chairperson said that the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the CCMA is not only the budget cuts but also the tensions it created between employers and employees. She asked if the CCMA had a plan for addressing these tensions. She said she was called by employees from a company in the Western Cape informing her that the company was planning to retrench the employees without any engagement. She said that it was not supposed to be easy and cheap for employers to retrench workers because they wanted to save at the expense of losing workers whose rate of unemployment is very high.

Mr Xolani Nduna, Commissioner, CCMA, on the question of the employers having it easy to retrench workers; the Department has a Dispute Management and Prevention Programme and the aim of the programme includes going out and targeting certain employers and engaging them around the issue of retrenchments. Retrenchments are a big thing impacting negatively on workers. In some cases the Department receives letters after employees have already been dismissed. Where the CCMA has been approached by either employers or employees and are requested to facilitate it has helped.

The unemployment statistics that CCMA is using is statistics that came from Statistics South Africa as the CCMA does not do statistics on their own.

The CCMA is also customer centered and it aims to improve in assisting users of services as much as possible. The other practice that the Department engages in is that of assisting employers and employees to resolve matters before they are escalated.

Ms Bronkhorst said that the UIF funds national employment schemes with funds vested via the PEC into socially responsible investment. In labour activation programmes where there are proposals made to the UIF to fund, this fund is linked to employment creation.

Mr Lamati said that the CCMA has a program to resolve disputes between employers and employees. With the budget cuts, the Department is calling upon employers and employees to resolve disputes at the workplace instead of burdening the CCMA with cases that could have been resolved on the factory floor.

The Chairperson asked if the Department considered having a one stop shop facility where all entities would be housed as a measure to adjust to the budget cuts. If that would be a feasible alternative, she asked when the Department would be able to implement such a strategy.

Mr Lamati said that this option was discussed In the Department at some point as an option for lowering rental costs. This was discussed but never followed up. Given the situation, the Department can revisit this option and see how it can be integrated without losing the independence that the entities have.

The Chairperson said that at NEDLAC the CCMA is being flooded by employees and this needs consideration. The government would take the blame for that through the Department of Labour and Employment which is unfair. There are some weaknesses that the pandemic has exposed to all stakeholders from employers, businesses, labour, governments, and civil society. There is need to begin to engage in a dialogue of how best to address this situation because it cannot solely be the responsibility of government. Members of Parliament have the responsibility of raising issues where they see that there are challenges.

Members must be aware that there are preparations for the Budget Vote and there is a meeting on Wednesday. Convention 190 had been sent to Parliament and as such Members of Parliament had to find time so that the Department can brief the Committee on the Convention because the Committee was expected to deliberate and produce a report on that.

There were several legislations that were going to stand before the Committee and it was important for the Committee to execute its oversight responsibility.

The meeting was adjourned

                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

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