The Department of Employment and Labour Minister, Mr T.W. Nxesi says that the issues of violation of basic employee registrations are becoming more increasing, and the Department is looking into imposing more significant fines against unlawful labour practices by employers in South Africa.
The Employment and Labour Minister, Mr T.W. Nxesi, was this on Thursday, July 13, 2023 addressing the employers of the Golden Ridge Estate during the farm company’s workplace inspection led by the Minister at Kirkwood in the Eastern Cape.
The Golden Ridge Estate is a Kirkwood based farming estate in the Eastern Cape and the second biggest GDP contributor in the province.
“One of the things we are going to be harsh on is that, some of the employers violate labour laws, and we come back to them and we find they did not correct because we start by corrective measures. And they continue to violate labour laws, and then they get a fine in court but the fine is insignificant to them and they continue to violate labour laws.
“Now part of the law which we are cooking is that if we are to find you (as an employer in violation of labour laws) and if we have given you warnings to do the corrective measures, and for the third time we find you violating, we are going to deal with your profits and a certain percentage of your profits. And we send a very clear message,” said Minister Nxesi.
The Minister further explained the Department’s current stand on the Employment Equity Act to the farm owners and said that employers must be transparent in order to justify the lack of the implementation of training and mentorship of Black and other employees in their companies.
“The most sensitive issue, which I must emphasise, is the question of the foreign nationals in the midst of high unemployment in South Africa. You can employ them provided they are legal and provided they have papers. But it must be a particular quarter. You have the security sector and the retail sector, but we cannot come up with something which is a one size fits all. It’s going to depend on the various sectors,” said Minister Nxesi.
The Minister earlier today administered the provision of the Department’s services at the Tamboville’s Community Multi-purpose Centre during the Department’s “Taking Services to the People” initiative at Kariega in the Eastern Cape.
“It’s a very strong programme where we feel that some of the people are not closer to Labour Centres, and then it means we must be able to provide service closer to them. Tons of the services we are bringing is the UIF, the Compensation Fund, the issues of the Employment Services where we are doing career counselling for the young people on how to deposit their CVs in a central database which will be available to all the employers, both private and public,” said Minister Nxesi.
The Department of Employment and Labour Chief Director: Provincial Operations in the Eastern Cape, Ms Nomfundo Douw-Jack, said that this week’s “Taking Services to the People” programme was a responds to a clarion call from the residents of Kariega.
The initiative will end today July 14, 2023.
