Hon Minister, hon Members of Parliament, the director- general, DG, and officials of the department, social partners, business, community and labour, captains of industry and commerce, distinguished guests, members of the media and ladies and gentlemen, the ANC-led government inherited a terminally ill economy in 1994, characterised by unemployment, economic stagnation and repressive labour laws.
The pre-1994 labour laws of this country were used by the apartheid regime not only to suppress workers in the workplace but as part of social engineering on a bigger scale. Wages that were paid to workers dictated the societal patterns that we see in this country. The low level of wages determined, amongst other things, who would qualify for a housing loan, which hospital to go to, and if you should die, which mortuary to be taken to and which cemetery to be buried in ... [Interjections.] ... which schools to send your children to, where to buy your groceries and essentials and, lastly, what food to eat. The entire socialisation of society was, to a large extent, dictated to by the labour market policies of the day.
The advent of the new labour relations regime in 1996 changed the labour policy and industrial relations landscape dramatically and the ANC is proud of that. The new labour dispensation attracted accolades from beyond our borders and the world over. Having said that, it would be naive to forget that, historically, the labour laws regime in South Africa has always been a contested terrain and it will be for some time to come. The difference today, though, is that we have put institutions in place to deal with and manage the inherent conflict in our labour sector. Despite varied outcomes, our institutions remain the best that we have.
South Africa's response to the 2008-09 global economic crisis was facilitated by the labour market institutions. While the South African economy is advancing, it has not fully recovered from the devastating 2008- 09 global economic recession. While South Africa dragged itself out of recession quicker than most countries could, there are still many countries that remain trapped in the aftermath of the 2008 global economic recession. The undeniable truth is that some of these countries are major trading partners of South Africa. Therefore, their challenges will have an unavoidable impact on our economic growth patterns.
The Minister of Labour has, in pursuit of the ruling party's vision, tabled four Bills in Parliament. In our view, the Bills seek to address the gaps that have emerged since the last amendments and to bring, alignment with the country's international obligations, alignment with the relevant jurisprudence and, most importantly, to strengthen the protection of vulnerable workers. There is agreement among all social partners that these are the right things to do. Where parties differ, is on the "how". As the old saying goes: Angels lurk on the periphery, but the devil is in the detail. [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
Government cannot abdicate its responsibility to protect its citizens. Likewise, it cannot turn a blind eye to rampant abuse of vulnerable workers. The United Nations is resolute that workers' rights are human rights too. They are human beings and are entitled to protection by the law. [Applause.]
The sectoral determination dispensation is one of the instruments at government's disposal to deal with the protection of vulnerable workers. The recent farmworkers' strike in the Western Cape has surfaced a new and growing trend in the farming sector, that is, anecdotally, that the make-up of the workforce is dominated by foreign nationals. Our Constitution and our labour laws extend protection to all workers, including documented and nondocumented foreign workers, that is, those legal and illegal in South Africa. They are protected by the labour laws of this country.
The challenge in the farming sector is the rampant exploitation of foreign nationals, and in some cases, they are preferred to locals and are often paid far below the prescribed minimum wages. When the Minister of Labour gazetted the new sectoral determination for farm workers, two trends happened.
Firstly, an unprecedented large number of employers applied for exemptions; and secondly, employers started recruiting large numbers of foreign nationals. Home Affairs has evidence of this.
If it is true that our labour laws are inflexible, close to a million workers would not have lost their jobs as a result of the global economic recession in 2008. If our laws are that rigid, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, CCMA, wouldn't be inundated with notices for retrenchments, the mining sector wouldn't even be talking about possible retrenchments and employers would not be able to apply for exemptions. For this reason, I want to argue that our labour laws are relatively flexible. If you give a four-year-old a hammer, everything in front of him would look like a nail to be hammered. [Laughter.] It seems that in the eyes of employers, the labour laws of this country look like a nail that needs to be hammered at every opportunity.
Protecting workers' rights is a constitutional ... [Interjections.] ... obligation, and the ANC has done an excellent job in ensuring that there are institutions to advance this noble and human rights objective. It can only be the liberators who will push this. [Interjections.] I am sure that you will agree with me that there is no labour market system that is perfect, and the ANC does not, for one moment, profess that our labour market policy framework is perfect. However, it is a compromise that was negotiated by the social partners at the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac, as far back as 1996. If we had done it our own way, we would have done it differently.
Last week I watched a television debate about wage negotiation season, or, as some call it, strike season. It depends on where you stand. What surprised me was the notion that the decline in union membership in the country must be celebrated. Somebody said that. Comrades, this is absurd! The empirical evidence points to the fact that nonunionised workers are the most vulnerable and this can never be a cause for celebration.
Some of these challenges are shaking the very foundation laid to transform the economy and social conditions of the majority of South Africans. The current picture contradicts what we envisaged postapartheid South Africa to be.
In light of these challenges, we welcome the 2013-14 budget increase to R2,4 billion, especially given the resource challenges that the department faces. We welcome efforts to increase the budget in order to improve the inspectors' remuneration to ensure their retention and creating new specialist labour inspector posts. This goes a long way in addressing some of the challenges that were raised by the labour inspectors during our oversight visits. Some of these challenges include understaffing and insufficient tools of the trade, such as laptops and vehicles to travel with to inspection sites.
The budget allocation for the current financial year is expected to increase the number of personnel in the Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement subprogramme, from 1 434 posts in 2011-12 to 1 457 in 2015-16. In the current financial year, the department is going to increase the capacity of the inspectorate with an additional 90 inspector posts. This will increase the number of inspections conducted per annum.
The larger portion of the Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement subprogramme's goods and services budget goes to travelling and fleet services costs for inspectors. We hope that this will contribute towards the alleviation of transport-related challenges raised by inspectors during oversight visits.
Hon Minister, we hope that this budget will also address some of the challenges that have been raised by Prof F L Geminiani and Prof John Smallwood's research outcomes when they investigated the effectiveness of the Department of Labour's occupational health and safety inspections service in the construction sector. Their research concluded that there is a need for the South African inspectorate services to improve the manner in which inspections are conducted in this sector. However, voluntary compliance by companies is also encouraged. It takes two to tango but actually, it takes many to do that.
We also welcome additional budget allocations of R80 million in 2013-14, R140 million in 2014-15 and R160 million in 2015-16 financial years to the CCMA, to deal with additional caseloads arising from amendments to labour legislation and the roll-out of the web-based management system, a new office in the Vaal and Welkom areas, and a dedicated job-saving unit for the training lay-off schemes. We commend the department for the role it had played, through the CCMA, in the resolution of disputes of national importance, such as those at the Lonmin Mine in Marikana and the De Doorns farm. We all know that.
This budget is most welcome, especially considering the challenges that we face. Somehow, while we acknowledge the validity of these challenges, there are times when some of the comments and actions could be interpreted as a direct attack on the 1994 gains.
Labour market institutions such as the CCMA and Nedlac continue to play a role in stabilising the labour market through negotiations and finding consensus among labour market role-players. Strengthening labour market institutions is critical to finding a social compact, as proposed in the National Development Plan, NDP, to find solutions to deal with unemployment, poverty and inequality. Without such consensus, we all know there will be anarchy.
Every person and family needs protection from the risks and the resulting insecurities. Some sectors are more prone to these insecurities than others. For example, the agricultural sector is vulnerable to shocks of any kind. In addition to occupational hazards in this sector, risks of unemployment, irregularity and instability of income are significant. Hence, there is a need to build comprehensive social security funds to cushion workers during difficult periods.
During the 2011-12 financial year, the Unemployment Insurance Fund, UIF, paid benefits of R5,6 billion to 706 000 people. The UIF's administration has considerably improved over the years.
As the committee, we also acknowledge that today there are still numerous challenges facing the Compensation Fund. At present, effective compensation services are compromised by administrative difficulties with the Compensation Fund and the Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases. On 13 February this year, the committee met with the commission to discuss its challenges. While there is improvement in some areas, it is relatively slow, given the significance of the type of services the fund has to provide to the workers of this country. Compared with the previous consecutive disclaimers, the fund has now received a qualified audit report.
However, poor human resource performances, information technology, IT, challenges and fraud have all led to the nonpayment of medical practitioners. In some instances, these practitioners have refused to work with cases of injury on duty. Unfortunately, these challenges have a direct and adverse impact on the health and lives of workers who have to endure pain from untreated injuries and illnesses.
Due to the serious nature of this very issue, my office has been receiving calls regarding compensation cases, and from numerous stakeholders reporting shocking stories of clients who had to suffer numerous amputation procedures as a result of the nonpayment of doctors and medical equipment for these workers. This is absurd! Therefore, the committee undertakes to closely monitor the Compensation Fund, particularly through regular meetings with the Auditor-General's office.
We have also requested that the turnaround strategy project team should report regularly to the committee. Hon Minister, in order to improve the fund's administrative challenges, we request a hands-on approach from the DG and your office.
Furthermore, the Public Employment Services programme received a total of R401 million during the 2013-14 financial year, compared with the previous year's R334,3 million. The programme includes subprogrammes, namely Management and Support Services; Workseeker Services; Employer Services; Designated Groups Special Services; Sheltered Employment Factories, SEF, and Subsidies to Designated Workshops; Productivity SA; UIF; and the Compensation Fund.
The department's expenditure focus will be on enhancing its capacity to implement the Employment Services Bill and the huge employment services projects once the Bill is promulgated, and on managing the implementation of the turnaround strategy of the SEF. Ultimately, the SEF seek to provide on-the-job training for employees, increase the number of workers, partnerships with government departments and private manufacturers for open- employment opportunities, as well as assist private employers to provide conditions conducive to absorbing workers trained in the SEF.
High unemployment is one of the most pressing challenges facing our country. The Budget Review reported that there are 4,5 million jobless South Africans. Another 2,3 million people are categorised as "discouraged", and are no longer actively seeking employment. This raises the broad unemployment rate to 33,2%. The government's response to this challenge, as contained in the NDP, includes training; skills development; labour market activation and short-term public employment.
The challenges we face force us to introspectively address weaknesses in our statutes and policies, and to find new solutions to new challenges posed by globalisation and the unique nature of our society. At the core of such introspective exercises is the need to address leadership challenges to deal with these disparities in the labour market. One such example is the need for companies to address poor managerial practices, which in turn lead to tensions in the workplace. Hence there is a need for companies to invest in skills training, for labour relations managers to acquire negotiation skills and a general understanding of the South African labour relations economy.
We call on the hon Minister to do whatever she can to ensure that poor workers' lives in South Africa improve. Our main worry has been poverty amongst employed workers. It is sad that people would work but still go home with nothing, are hungry and cannot even afford to buy shoes for their children. Minister, we are employing the Second World War cry by the Red Army, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. They said, Tolko vpered, nazad nyet, which means, forward ever, backward never! We are behind you, Comrade Minister. Amandla! [Applause.]