Order! I now invite the hon Nchabaleng, the chairperson of the committee, to introduce the report.
Hon Speaker, hon Ministers, hon members, in response to a resolution taken by the Portfolio Committee on Labour to conduct oversight visits to nine labour centres in the Free State, including the provincial Department of Labour, I present the report emanating from the said oversight visit for consideration.
In its oversight visit, the committee observed that relatively similar challenges were experienced at the labour centres visited. The committee observed the following: a shortage of client services officers, a lack of training, and the poor state of equipment and information technology systems owing to the Siemens contract were identified as contributing factors towards the slow pace of assisting clients with regard to of processing their compensation fund and Unemployment Insurance Fund, UIF, benefits. The shortage of inspectors, lack of training and shortage of vehicles contributed to poor performance of the inspectorate and enforcement services in the Free State.
The lack of office premises and maintenance of infrastructure made working conditions unsuitable for officials to discharge their duties. Delays in staff appointments owing to the SA Qualifications Authority and the National Intelligence Agency's verification process were further constraints to service delivery for those who desperately needed the assistance of government. Ineffective management and the way in which recruitment practices were applied, were identified in some labour centres as a reason for low staff morale.
We recommend that in order to boost service delivery, the Department of Labour should incrementally expand its structure to accommodate additional functions that have been transferred to labour centres. This includes transferring staff from head office and filling all vacancies at labour centres. Owing to an extensive decentralisation of functions to the labour centres, managers have a disproportionately large share of duties. The department should, therefore, seriously consider restructuring occupational levels of labour centre staff, both to retain and to motivate staff.
The department should strengthen the capacity of labour inspectors by hiring more inspectors, providing more specialised training and ensuring that inspectors spend sufficient time focusing on sector-specific needs and challenges. These include the agricultural, domestic and construction sectors.
In addition, the department should provide specialised training to labour centres to deal with issues regarding migrant workers, particularly to provinces located along the borders of South Africa, such as the Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the North West, the Eastern Cape and others.
The department should work closely with the Department of Home Affairs to curb noncompliance by foreign businesses. Both the provincial and national offices should promptly address the issue of accommodation of labour centres, in consultation with the Department of Public Works.
The department should allocate to labour centres more vehicles which are suitable for the remote areas in the Free State. The national Department of Labour should develop an escalation procedure to expedite the processing of compensation funds and UIF claims based on the outcry from the labour centres visited.
The provincial office should co-ordinate a workshop between all agricultural stakeholders to discuss co-operative sectoral approaches and sector-specific actions that could assist the sector in boosting compliance and improving general working conditions of farm workers in the province. A similar workshop should also be conducted with all municipalities.
The provincial management and national head office should ensure that labour centres develop proper communication channels between staff and management, as well as ensure that proper diversity management tools to deal with issues of cultural differences are developed. The department should review the performance management policy and should ensure that measures are developed to prevent abuse of these assessment processes.
In conclusion, certain recommendations contained in the said report have been achieved by the Department of Labour, for which we thank the department, the Minister and the provincial structures of the Department of Labour. I thank you.
There was no debate.
Chairperson, I move:
That the report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.