CCMA, Nedlac & PSA Quarter 3 2021/22 Performance; with Minister

Meeting report

Briefing by Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)

Mr Cameron Morajane, Director, CCMA, said the CMMA had achieved all four of its planned indicators in the third quarter for 2021/22 and had an overall achievement of 100%. The settlement rate at the CMMA was still at 94%, and 38 807 cases had been referred to the CMMA in this quarter. He said the team should be commended on this, given the limited resources.

(See presentation)

Discussion

Mr M Bagraim (DA) congratulated the Director on the amazing job they had been doing. The work of the CCMA had been outstanding. He asked how the CCMA’s proposal to monitor unionised ballots had been received by the labour sector, and whether this had become common practice. He hoped the CCMA was building the labour peace everyone was speaking about. He asked if all the strikes had ensured they stayed within the regulations, and whether they were legally protected. Strikes were rising back to their pre-Covid numbers, and this was becoming a worrying trend. He asked whether financially the CCMA was doing well.

Ms C Mkhonto (EFF) welcomed the presentation and congratulated the CCMA on the good work they always did. The CCMA brought hope that some government institutions worked and were protecting some of the most vulnerable. She asked why cases referred from the agricultural sector had represented only 4%. Based on the visits done by the joint committees on agriculture, there was a huge need for the services of the CCMA, but farming communities could not access the CCMA and their services. She asked if the CCMA had outreach programmes that targeted farming communities. These workers were sometimes not allowed to unionise, and were not only far from the CCMA, but also from all other services. She asked if there was a plan in place to assist farming communities.

Mr S Mdabe (ANC) said access for farming communities was very difficult, and the CCMA must do more to bring their services to these communities. He congratulated the CCMA on their performance.

Mr Morajane thanked the Committee for their congratulatory remarks, which he would convey to all the staff. The ballot supervision had had a positive uptake, and unions were requesting the CCMA to do ballot supervision. He used the Sibanye Stillwater case as an example and said Sibanye Stillwater had originally requested the CCMA to supervise the ballot, and it had done so excellently, even under difficult conditions. The CCMA had worked well with most unions on this issue. It also got requests from federations to supervise their elections.

He said the CCMA could intervene in matters even when the issue was not brought before it, and it had had positive results in doing this. The bargaining council was also in place to deal with strikes or other matters, without the need for the CCMA to get involved. The CCMA had a general forum with all bargaining councils' secretaries, and they discussed matters of mutual interest.

He said the labour court and the labour appeal court were creating problems for the CCMA, as these institutions were not growing at the rate the CCMA was growing and were unable to deal with the number of cases in a reasonable time. The CCMA was operating with a different system -- a more advanced one -- and had helped with hearings, but these two courts still used an old system which was incompatible with the CCMA, and this led to cases being dealt with slowly.

The referrals and disputes recorded under agriculture may not be a true reflection of cases that arise in this sector, and this was because of access. Access made it hard for farming communities to bring cases to the CCMA. It was also difficult for the CCMA to access farms, because different rules governed this, and sometimes farms were private property. There was also a fear from farm workers to report cases because normally there was a backlash from farmers. He said farmers were very difficult and did not show up when cases were being mediated.

He said there was an agreement between the Department of Agriculture and the CCMA for the Commission to use all its agricultural centres around the country, and this would help it to access a larger portion of the farming communities. The CCMA had also signed an agreement with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and would use local municipalities to access communities. The Labour Court had also agreed for the CCMA to use their courts when the courts were in recess.

The CCMA was adopting a new operational model and had set out new ways of potential revenue generation.

The Chairperson said farm workers mostly were allowed to leave only on weekends, and maybe this was something the CCMA had to take into consideration.

Briefing by National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC)

Ms Lisa Seftel, Executive Director, NEDLAC shared highlights of the Council's performance with the Committee. These included:

• The response to Covid19. NEDLAC's social partners had responded rapidly to the emergence of the Omicron variant at the end of November 2021, including calling for an intensification of the vaccination programme.
• Dialogue sessions were convened. Successful dialogues took place on the green economy interventions, the financial inclusion policy, the national labour migration policy, the Employment Services Amendment Bill, gender-based violence (GBV) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 190.
• Nedlac processes. Engagements were concluded on the critical skills list and the Central Applications Systems Bill.
• Nedlac annual summit. This was convened successfully on 7 December, with significant media coverage.

She listed the challenges faced by the organisation:

• The Companies Amendment Bill was referred to the Government by Cabinet before the process was finalised.
• The Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) skills strategy task team had to be reconvened to include the community constituency.
• There were delays and uncertainty on the tabling of bills by the government, such as the Tobacco Bill, the White Paper on Rail, and amendments to the Public Administration Act.
• The monitoring of commitments had been adversely impacted due to a lack of timeous government reporting.
• There had been a cyber security attack in December, where some users had been tricked into divulging their log-in details.

Outlining the financial report, Ms Seftel said there had been a saving on the compensation of employees due to vacancies. There was a significant increase in the goods and services budget (from R5.7 million in Q2 to R9.8 million in Q3), but there was still an under-spending compared to the year to date. However, there were plans in place to spend the budget. There were no new transactions of irregular expenditure, or fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

(See presentation)

Discussion

Mr Bagraim said NEDLAC kept coming up with new codes and regulations, yet somehow the situation got worse every year. Was it monitoring its regulations and codes? He asked NEDLAC to submit its implementation plan for the establishment of the labour relations task team to the Committee. The Committee should discuss these plans and see what was being proposed by the business community and NEDLAC. The Code of Good Practice Section 7 disputes had been gazetted last Friday, and this was like putting out a red carpet for mass strikes. He asked if there was still a backlog in the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) payments.

Dr M Cardo (DA) asked about the preparation of research reports on the comprehensive social security and retirement reforms. Did these touch on the introduction of a basic income grant, what was NEDLAC’s role in these discussions, and did the research reports cover the potential cost this might have for taxpayers? He asked who sat on the labour relations task team and what timeframes were in place for it, what its scope and its mandates were, and whether the task team would look at the automatic extension of bargaining council deals.

Ms Mkhonto said the under-performance under administration worried her, and the cyber-attacks in December had been a huge risk. She asked if IT had a risk management strategy in place -- this should be a serious concern for NEDLAC, as sensitive and confidential information could be stolen. She asked how far the border policy bill was. What constituency capacity building was NEDLAC doing, and who benefited from these capacity-building sessions? Unions were proposing that members should be able to access a portion of their retirement funds as a loan -- had NEDLAC been part of these discussions?

Mr Mdabe asked what the status of the National Labour and Employment Services Amendment Bill was, and what discussions had taken place on the presented amendments.

Ms Seftel responded that the labour market chamber deliberated on codes, and they set these codes against industry standards. NEDLAC did request a follow-up on how a code was implemented and whether it was making a difference. The task team implementation plan would be sent to the Portfolio Committee. The plan would also include progress reports on what the task team had worked on and what their timeframes were. The time frame was for eight months, but she believed this target would not be reached as the issues were being resolved slowly.

The issue of collective bargaining agreements being automatically extended was not explicitly on the table, but discussions were being held on how to improve and address the impact of one-size-fits-all bargaining. NEDLAC’s focus had been how to facilitate best between the unions, government and the business sector. She said the Code of Good Practice Section 7 disputes would ensure there was a greater chance of resolving disputes without engaging in strike action. This had been used and had averted a lot of socio-economic strikes.

There was still a COVID-19 TERS backlog, and NEDLAC was addressing this with all its partners. There were also some serious problems with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).

There were four research reports, and all of them were available on NEDLAC’s website. One of the reports addressed the basic income grant and had recommendations. NEDLAC supported the issue of a basic income grant, but there were reservations from some of the social partners, and the report provided information on the deliberations between the social partners and the government.

NEDLAC had a risk register and risk mitigation plan in place for cyber security risks, and this would be closely monitored regularly. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) was coming up with a border management amendment bill, but this had not been discussed with NEDLAC.

NEDLAC provided capacity building for everyone and included organised labour, communities and sector partners. It provided workshops and different training sessions for many organisations and forums.

The retirement reforms matter was not currently in front of NEDLAC, and the debate had been only at the government level at this point. When the matter reached NEDLAC, there would be further discussions on the matter with different stakeholders.

On the employment services bill and policy, she said the Department of Employment and Labour had presented this to NEDLAC based on dialogue, and not discussions. The presentation set out what the Department was planning regarding these two pieces of policy. These policies would come back to NEDLAC for formal engagement.

Briefing by Productivity South Africa (PSA)

Mr Mothunye Mothiba, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), PSA, said the entity had reached all but one of its performance targets, which involved support for enterprises facing economic distress and initiatives aimed at preventing job losses, where it had been able to reach only 33% of the target. This indicator was directly linked to the missed target of the number of companies facing economic distress. Many companies that sought help did not meet the compliance requirements -- they were either not in good standing with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and/or the UIF. In addition, the organisations under-capacity across all regions had contributed to its under-achievement. 

A highlight had been the Competitiveness Improvement Services programme, which focuses on enterprise competitiveness and sustainability, including enhancing the appropriate capacities of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and co-operatives.  This had achieved its annual target due to coordinated efforts with stakeholders that support SMMEs.

(See presentation)

Discussion

Mr Bagraim said this was an entity that was desperately needed by South Africa. South Africa was the worst in the world when it came to employment growth and productivity, which did not speak very well for the PSA’s mandate. He did not blame the entity and put the blame on the Department. One of the mandates of the PSA was to provide decent employment, and he asked how the PSA defined decent employment. The number of jobs saved by the PSA was not enough, and they were not saying what type of employment they were saved for -- was it part-time jobs, or was it in the form of someone who might just have a job for a week?

Ms Mkhonto asked if there was a plan for PSA to visit countries that were performing well in order to see what their successes were compared to South Africa. It needed to be exposed to how other countries had overcome the challenges that South Africa was facing. She said SMMEs needed more support because they normally employed the most vulnerable people and those from marginalised communities. These companies normally struggled with red tape -- did the PSA assist them in this regard?

Mr Mothiba responded that employment growth had been difficult in South Africa and was based on inequality and slow economic growth. The PSA supported companies to create jobs, as well as companies that were going through distress. South Africa did poorly in these areas, and the PSA continued to press hard on the matter of productivity and accountability. This should be a national priority, but South Africa was far from this.

He agrees with Members that South Africa needed to do some benchmarking and look at what top-performing countries were doing to foster growth and employment. There were talks for South Africa to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Switzerland around creating decent employment.

The PSA did assist companies with red tape, and also advises them on how to handle their SARS obligations.

Minister's concluding remarks

Mr Thulas Nxesi, Minister of Employment and Labour, said he had noted the issues raised by the Members, and the areas that needed improvement. There were areas where entities performed quite well. The Department would work hard to address the issue of access for farm workers because the farming sector had the most problems when it came to employees -- in some instances, workers were not paid what was due to them.

He said more needed to be done on the part of law enforcement agencies. Employers needed to know that there would be consequences if they break the law, but some were even prepared to pay penalties by budgeting for them. He said the penalties needed to be higher to encourage employers to abide by the labour laws.

The meeting was adjourned.