More Tough Talk By The Minister And Chief Inspector Of The Department Of Labour

Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdlanlana addressed a joint policy conference of the Department of Labour and the International Labour Organisation, held on 28 September 2010 in Pretoria and made some more tough statements about the attitude displayed by certain employers towards compliance with labour legislation in general.

After the conference when addressing the media, he announced that the legislation was being amended to empower labour inspectors more, and increase the sanctions against employers who ignored the legislation and broke the law. This was obviously said to justify the right of entry by labour inspectors to premises and the ability to issue "on-the-spot" fines to alleged rogue employers.

South Africa historically applies a two tier system in respect of the administration of Occupational Health and Safety in work places. The legislation for mines is administered separately to that contained in the Occupational Heath and Safety Act of 1993. In addition, the Department of Labour administers a host of statutes such as the Unemployment Act, the Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act etc, some which also apply to mining.

The Department of Labour soon after 1996 and against the serious expression of reservations of the then Business South Africa (BSA), decided to rationalise its inspectorate by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, which meant that Department of Labour inspectors became responsible for the administration of all labour statutes under the ambit of the Department. Linked to the rapid transformation programme applied in the public sector it appears that not all the inspectors employed by the Department had sufficient experience and skills to deal with the host of new labour statutes such as the Employment Equity Act etc.

The Minister is blaming this shortcoming on the poor salaries paid to inspectors, who it is claimed are among the worst paid in the public sector. The Department acknowledged that it employed 800 inspectors for the nine provinces and needed an additional 1200 inspectors if it was going to establish a high visibility in the workplace.

The Department’s chief inspector , Thibilo Lamati said that they wanted to make it easier for inspectors to issue fines and penalties to employers ."Currently the fines and penalties related to Occupational Heath and Safety are so low that employers don’t feel a pinch. We have not finalised the exact increase of the sanctions but we want to structure them so that they are a deterrent.”

"The new penalties will also include imprisonment or a jail term for employers" said Lamati. "Currently labour inspectors have to go to the labour court to issue notices, compliance orders, and (to) impose a fine. That is a laborious process but what we want is for inspectors to be able to issue fines and penalties on the spot and it would be up to employers to go to the labour court to question those penalties" said Lamati.

Lamati claimed the introduction of the Public Employment Services Act would go a long way towards establishing a "professional" inspectorate who had better employment conditions and undergone para-legal training. According to a statement made by the Minister during August, the National Treasury is amenable to providing the Department with the required funds necessary to enforce existing labour legislation by beefing up the critical position of labour inspectors.

Pieter Rautenbach