NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER N0 80 (CO488E)
QUESTION FOR ORAL REPLY
QUESTION 80: Mr DA WORTH (DA -FS) to ask the Minister of Labour
1. What is the Ministerâs position with regards to the latest economic
freedom of the World Index Survey stating the South Africa Government
is increasingly over prescriptive in industrial labour matters;
2. Does this lead to additional job losses, if not, what proof is there
to show this, if so, what steps are being taken to obviate this?
MINISTER OF LABOUR REPLY
1. The South African Labour Law is not prescriptive as certain labour
market commentators would like us to believe. The truth is that
inherent in our labour laws is the concept of regulated flexibility.
Testament to this fact is that business can apply for ministerial
variations to vary certain conditions of employment from the Basics
Conditions of Employment Act; the bargaining councilsâ agreements
contain clauses for providing exemptions to small enterprises within
their scope; and the Ministerial Determination for small businesses
which varies certain conditions of employment from the Basic
Conditions of Employment Act.
In 2008 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
released a study on the South African Economic Assessment. One of the
phenomenon that they looked at against the observation of the World
Economic Forum, Competitiveness Index which alleged that âthe South
African labour laws are over regulatedâ. OECD reached the following
conclusions in their study: âThe South African labour laws appear to
be relatively flexible with respect both to the average of OECD
countries and those other non OECD membersâ economyâ. Secondly, in
their report they stated that âSouth African labour legislation seems
to live up to its creatorsâ aim of providing regulated flexibilityâ.
2. Therefore honourable member should not assume that job losses are as
result of our labour laws. There are many reasons that companies lay-
off workers. One of the latest reasons that I am sure that Honorable
Worth is aware of is the economic recession. During this crisis many
companies shed jobs. This shedding of jobs had nothing to do with our
labour laws