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Tag Archives: Temps
Rules intended to protect temps are having the opposite effect
As South Africa is pushing the Labour Bills into Parliament, in UK’s new Agency Worker Regulations, one of the hot issues “same pay and benefits as permanent workers” is resulting in an opposite effect.
Extracts from The Telegraph article
Under the changes, which stem from European law, temps are entitled to the same pay and benefits as permanent workers after just 12 weeks in a job. Previously, they had to wait one year to clock up employment rights. ( SA has proposed 6months. We should be doing one year)
A Government analysis said the new rules would cost firms £1.8bn (over R10bn!) a year to implement, raising fears that cash-strapped businesses would stop hiring temps as it no longer made commercial sense. A typical small business would have to pay an extra £2,493 a year, increasing to £73,188 for larger companies. (Experts in SA have always been saying more people, if not more households will suffer as a result)
The new 12-week rule also damages temps’ flexibility to cover peaks and troughs in demand, experts said.
Scores of employers have revisited how they will use temps following the new rules, and are either recruiting fewer agency staff or urging them to waive their rights under a legal loophole. (This is one of my fears for the SA market)
Tom Hadley, policy director at the REC, said the decline in temp hiring “may in part be linked to employer uncertainty over the agency worker regulations”. (Unfortunately this has already commenced in SA without even the bills finalised)
The number of people placed in short-term jobs fell in March at the fastest rate for two-and-a-half years, research from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG revealed. (The Namibia case comes to mind. SA should bear this in mind)
SOURCE: THE TELEGRAPH
Credit to worradmu for the image
Qoutable Quotes: Labour Broking Saga March 2012
1. Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane March 8 2012
“Cabinet wishes to reiterate its conviction that abusive labour practices should be prohibited. The matter of labour brokers is being discussed at Nedlac by all the social partners.
“Cabinet calls on all social partners to prioritise the finalisation of this matter at Nedlac.”
2. President Jacob Zuma
“The ruling party’s 2009 manifesto was jointly adopted and launched by the alliance – the ANC, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party,”
3. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe
“This ANC 2009 election manifesto was signed by all alliance partners, including Cosatu.”
4. Strike participant Edward Stalwart
If labour brokers were banned, “the companies that make use of the labour brokers will simply get guys off the streets to do the job”, said strike participant Edward Stalwart.
“Nothing will be accomplished by getting rid of labour brokers, it will only make the situation worse.”
Stalwart said rather than call a march, Cosatu should have upped their efforts to negotiate with government and business.
“We have been marching for all these years and we never got answers. Why would the government and businesses listen to this time around? This is time wasting,” said Stalwart.
5. Labour Brokers: Cosatu Snubbed (The New Age)
“The government will transform laws to regulate labour broking because banning it will send thousands of people to the jobless queue,” said the source. “I shudder to think what the trade unions will do because the government’s refusal to ban labour broking will obviously disappoint them.”
6. ‘Don’t panic over labour brokers’ LABOUR Minister Mildred Oliphant
LABOUR Minister Mildred Oliphant yesterday said there was no reason to panic about labour brokers as discussions and negotiations at Nedlac were ongoing.
7. Black Business Council (BBC) welcomes Labour broking regulation
“We also welcome the news that there is a drive to regulate, rather than ban labour broking in South Africa.
“We maintain that flexible employment solutions should be counted among real solutions to the scourge of unemployment, especially among the youth.”
8. ‘Labour brokers add value’
The Black Business Council on Wednesday said labour broking does add value to the economy but that any abusive practices in the industry must be stamped out.
9. Mechanism of flexibility – Neren Rau
“We are removing a mechanism of flexibility and a mechanism of job creation from the environment due to a small level of lack of compliance and not really appreciating the huge benefits that labour broking offers to our economy and businesses and prospective employees.” Neren Rau, CEO of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry
