Dear Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour,
I wish to suggest that the non-payment of salaries by employers should be criminalized. In our country a shoplifter is charged for stealing goods of a very low rand value. Some of them are prosecuted and jailed for the theft. Employers on the other side don't get charged criminally for stealing money (salaries) from their own employees. They therefore double dip because they also retain profits from the sweat of their employees. By not paying salaries they actually enslave their employees. In other sectors, including but not limited to the agriculture and hospitality, this form of enslavement is rife. Employees are sometimes paid in kind because of their needs eg if an employee needs accommodation they are allowed to stay on the farm but they are docked their salaries for accommodation. This means the employer is actually renting accommodation to its own employees, who sometimes don't have a choice. The employers should pay them so that they exercise their choice of accommodation.

In the hospitality industry employers enter into experiential training agreements with education institutions. Whilst this approach is welcome, employers exploit it by continously rotating trainees, whom they don't pay, forever. This practice robs others employment opportunities but also creates some form of slavery. Most of these trainees are not even given any stipends or allowances for food and transportation. Sometimes such employers get tenders from government to provide hospitality services at conferences and so forth. When conferences end late the poor trainees are left stranded and have to hike to get home. This practice should be investigated and a new approach adopted.