BL Premium reports that SA’s labour laws are set for major revisions should proposals from the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) become law.
The proposals cover wide-ranging amendments to the Labour Relations Act and its associated Codes of Good Practice, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the National Minimum Wage Act and Employment Equity Act. One of the proposals that the social partners who make up Nedlac have agreed to would limit the ability of high-paid employees to refer unfair cases to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). According to the government, this leads to lengthy disputes and overwhelms the CCMA. The new proposal is that high-paid employees should only be entitled to reinstatement in cases of automatically unfair dismissal and in other dismissals should be restricted to compensation as a remedy. The high-paid earners’ income threshold of R 1.8m per annum would be adjusted annually in line with inflation. Another proposal is to amend laws that govern large-scale retrenchments. The parties agreed to propose a new law enabling the CCMA to make rules relating to facilitations rather than for the minister of labour to make regulations as is the current position. The proposed amendments, if they carry the day, will see statutory severance pay increase from one week’s pay per annum to two weeks. The government agreed with this proposal, while business disagreed. One the proposals with support from all social partners would require representative trade unions to conduct a secret ballot of the employees covered by a closed shop agreement to determine whether that agreement should be terminated or not. It would also provide that if three years have elapsed since the commencement of the agreement or the last ballot was conducted, the agreement will lapse.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kabelo Khumalo at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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