SAFTU backs the Employment Services Amendment Bill
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has confirmed its support for the Employment Services Amendment Bill as it supports efforts to regulate labour migration and protect jobs.
The bill was introduced in Parliament to overhaul the Employment Services Act of 2014 by strictly regulating the employment of foreign nationals and aligning labor laws with the Immigration and Refugees Acts.
SAFTU’s General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi says the focus should be on enforcing labour laws, protecting both South African – and migrant workers and addressing the root causes of unemployment through economic growth and job creation.
He says, “We support it is because we think that there has to be some regulation, anything that’s not regulated becomes a free for all. It’s quite clear that the previous regime we had is not effective in ensuring that there’s monitoring.”
Vavi says, “There’s enforceability and there’s accountability on the part of the employers and that’s why we support the system to impose quotas across the economy and in all of the sectors that can ensure that there’s some indicative numbers as to how many migrant labors can be employed at tolerable level and at enforceable level.”
He reiterated that for the bill to achieve its objectives, government has to enforce the legislation while upholding transparency.
Vavi says, “Our biggest worry is whether the government can enforce the legislation whether it will have sufficiently trained labor inspectors, reliable verification systems and the public reporting on employer’s compliance.”
He adds, “Including abuses, concealed true labor brokers and subcontractors. We worry about the equal labor protection. We want protection of existing workers. We don’t want the employer to see this as an opportunity to remove all of the current workers in favor of migrant workers.”