This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
In our Wednesday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
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SA’s proposed executive remuneration rules ‘worst in world’ BL Premium reports that corporate SA could soon have the “most onerous law” on public company remuneration in the world, according to Vodacom and other written submissions on the Companies Amendment Bill. The bill, before a parliamentary portfolio committee, suggests multiple changes to the Companies Act and tries to give shareholders more influence over how much listed companies pay their top executives. Currently, votes by shareholders on how much CEOs earn in SA are advisory, with little consequence. The Companies Act allows shareholders two votes on executive pay and when one or both votes does not get the required 75%, companies must meet dissenting voters. The new bill proposes giving shareholders a binding vote on pay, meaning that if more than 50% do not agree to executive CEO, CFO and non-executive remuneration they will not be paid these amounts. Quite how this would work in practice is not clear as shareholders vote on pay once a year, after it has taken place. As Ansie Ramalho, chair of the King Committee, told MPs on Tuesday: “It is ineffective to unscramble the remuneration egg. It is a fait accompli when it gets to voting [on pay].” But the need for consequences for failed votes is apparent when in many cases they fail year after year. The new draft law also proposes that if a single vote does not get more than 50%, the remuneration committee must step down immediately. The committee members will remain on the board as non-executive directors but will have no more say on pay. Criticism on this proposal has been unanimous. “Nowhere in the world does this happen,” the JSE said in its written submission to MPs. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Big business fights against better disclosure of pay gap BL Premium reports that big business has spoken out against a proposed law expected to force listed companies to declare the ratio between the top 5% of earners and the bottom 5% in their companies. The Companies Amendment Bill, which aims to alter parts of the Companies Act, seeks to address the vast differentials in pay in SA by improving remuneration disclosure. The bill suggests companies must disclose the wage gap between the top 5% of earners and the bottom 5%, disclose the salary of the highest and lowest paid worker, and the average and median employee remuneration. Parliament’s portfolio committee on trade and industry will hold public hearings on the bill this week. Speaking on behalf of Business Unity SA (Busa), CEO Cas Coovadia said the basis for comparing the top 5% and bottom 5% of earners seemed to be “arbitrary”. He suggested using the “Palma Ratio”, which compared the bottom 40% of earners in a firm with the top-paid 10%. The ratio is named after Gabriel Palma, the Chilean economist who inspired it. Coovadia said “substantial academic research shows the Palma Ratio is a more effective method of describing pay inequality in developing economies”. Coronation Fund Managers warned of “detrimental unintended consequences” from disclosing pay gap ratios. The PSG group warned that such a ratio might discourage companies from hiring younger employees who usually earned less, due to the “potential implications associated with maintaining these ratios”. Vodacom stated that “draconian remuneration disclosure practices” could encourage a skills flight when specialist skills were in short supply in SA. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Shoprite CEO earned R64m in 2023, but boss of smaller competitor Woolworths bagged a cool R122m Fin24 reports that Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht took home a total pay package of R64.66 million (including long-term incentives) in the 2023 financial year – just over half of the staggering R122.4 million that Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini earned in the same period. Even without long-term incentives, Bagattini still earned R10 million more than Engelbrecht. This was despite the fact that Shoprite's market value of R140 billion dwarfs the R46 billion of Woolworths. It also has a much larger footprint in terms of stores. But market analysts point out that a host of different factors are considered by company remuneration committees when deciding on pay packages and how they are structured, including share price performance. Furthermore, with both Woolworths and Shoprite delivering strong results of late, it is likely their shareholders will not be unhappy with the big paydays for the CEOs. Protea Capital Management’s Jean Pierre Verster pointed out that when comparing the remuneration of different CEOs, it was always important to recognise that a typical remuneration package included a basic salary, as well as short-term and long-term incentives. If one wanted to analyse a remuneration package paid in a single year and compare two CEOs, it was necessary to exclude long-term incentives because that remuneration did not necessarily apply to the year in question. For Verster, focusing on the basic salary and short-term incentives (like bonuses) paid was the best way to get a proper picture. Excluding the long-term incentives of R26.82 million that Engelbrecht received in 2023 but earned in previous years, left him with basic pay and short-term incentives of about R38 million. Stripping out the long-term share options of R66.7 million awarded to Bagattini three years ago, along with R7.1 million in share dividends, he took home a total basic pay with short-term annual incentives of about R48.4 million. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nick Wilson at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
Concern as two female City Power technicians robbed while on duty in Roodepoort on Monday IOL News reports that two Joburg City Power technicians were robbed on Monday of their valuables while on duty in Discovery, Roodepoort. City Power condemned the incident, saying the two female officials had been on duty in Wemmer Street. According to City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, the robbery was undertaken by two men who were driving a white Datsun Go vehicle. “The constant attacks on our technicians are unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Mangena said. He went on to indicate: “This year alone our teams have been held at gunpoint, robbed of cellphones, laptops, toolboxes, hijacked and injured to the point of hospitalisation – all while on duty and servicing communities in Johannesburg.” He said it was patently unfair and “outrageous that our employees must constantly look over their shoulders when on duty, out of fear of being attacked by criminals”. Mangena warned Joburg communities that the targeting of City Power officials could impact negatively on service in areas deemed “high-risk” as the entity would not “hesitate to pull out our teams if their safety is compromised”. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sihle Mlambo at IOL News. See too, City Power says attacks on technicians unacceptable after two employees robbed, at EWN There are 'worse' fire hazards at court buildings than the Joburg High Court, MPs told News24 reports that an official from the Office of the Chief Justice informed the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Tuesday that some superior court buildings were "worse" fire hazards than the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg. It was reported last week that Gauteng Deputy Judge President Roland Sutherland had expressed his concern over unaddressed fire safety risks at the High Court, in respect of which emergency services had concluded that it would be unsafe to send firefighters into the building. Of particular concern to Sutherland, was the building's 10th floor, filled to the brim with volumes of court files and with plate glass windows often shining directly onto piles of papers. A City of Johannesburg fire inspection report from April 2022 found that the building "does not provide a safe environment for the occupiers/users anymore. In case of a fire the safe evacuation of occupiers/users is not guaranteed". ACDP MP Steve Swart referred to the reportage on the fire hazard at the court and asked what is being done to address the risks. Neil Naidoo, director of facilities and security at the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ), responded: "Yes indeed, there are fire hazards at many superior court buildings. And some are worse than Johannesburg. But we treat them all the same. They're all a risk to us, not only to the judiciary, but the litigants as well as the stakeholders we have coming to court.” He said they had compiled "action logs" and had sent them to the directors of court operations, either to implement the actions themselves when it was the OCJ’s responsibility, or to engage with the public works department. As for the documents stored on the 10th floor, Naidoo said they were looking at digitisation and at alternative spaces to store the records. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Gerber at News24 (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
CCMA engaged in trying to resolve Samwu’s illegal City of Tshwane strike BusinessLive reports that the Tshwane metro, which rejected attempts last month by the Gauteng government to mediate in a protracted and unlawful strike by SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) members, has joined efforts to resolve the impasse. According to Cameron Morajane, director of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), they have been “engaging with the parties in a Section 150 public interest intervention. The process is still ongoing. Parties have been in full co-operation with the CCMA”. Morajane said the intervention would continue for “as long as parties are prepared to engage”. Samwu Gauteng provincial secretary Mpho Tladinyane commented: “We will wait for the outcome of the CCMA process and take it from there.” Samwu members downed tools on 26 July, demanding that the metro implement a 5.4% wage increase, being the last leg of a three-year wage agreement signed at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in 2021. The city, which had refused to negotiate with the union, claims it doesn’t have the R600m required for the agreement. It unsuccessfully applied to the SALGBC for an exemption. The illegal strike has seen municipal property such as garbage trucks and other infrastructure vandalised and destroyed. In some cases non-striking employees had been threatened and prevented from reporting to work and/or carrying out their duties, the city said. More than 120 striking workers have been fired. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive Tshwane losing millions of rand due to ongoing strike action by employees over wage increases Pretoria News reports that the cash-strapped City of Tshwane is losing millions of rand because of the ongoing strike action by employees over wage increases. The metro’s budget has been further stretched by the damages to buildings, infrastructure damages and the torching of municipal buildings as a result of the unprotected strike. Other costs the municipality has had to incur includes overtime payments to metro police officers to escort workers to job sites. Municipal employees have over the past few months been involved in a dispute with management over a 5.4% pay increase that the City has refused to pay, citing severe financial difficulties. Addressing the media last week, mayor Cilliers Brink, along with city manager Johan Mettler, said the violent nature of the strike had cost the municipality. But the duo could not say how much exactly the strike had cost the City and could only confirm that the bill was running into millions of rand. Municipal spokesperson Selby Bokaba indicated that in due course the City would calculate the full cost of the strike. He added that the City had been forced to increase contractors since the beginning of the strike. “The budget of contracting services would be under severe pressure due to the frequency in which the contracted services are being used,” he warned. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mashudu Sadike at Pretoria News
Godongwana says medium-term budget cuts will be ‘moderate’ and won’t exceed underspending in previous years BL Premium reports that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has given the assurance the budget cuts to be announced in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) will be “moderate” and will not exceed normal government underspending in previous years. There have been fears, given SA’s deteriorating fiscal position of low growth, low revenue and high borrowing costs, that the National Treasury will announce deep budget cuts in the MTBPS that will harm service delivery. In comments made to parliament’s finance committee on Tuesday, the minister said budget cuts would be below the underspending of R28bn by all spheres of government in 2022/23. In 2021/22, government underspending amounted to R36bn. His comments came after an open letter to him and President Cyril Ramaphosa by more than 100 academics, economists, professionals and civil society organisations called for a halt to all planned budget cuts. The Treasury has issued guidelines to government departments on how they can cut spending. Government exceeded the expenditure provided for in the February budget, which did not take into account the public sector wage agreement that added R37.4bn to spending. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only). Read too, 'The country is not running out of money, but fiscal discipline is key,' says Ramaphosa, at News24
AA says fuel prices set for big drop in November BusinessLive reports that according to the Automobile Association (AA), fuel prices are set to decrease in November, based on unaudited mid-month data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF). The data indicates ULP95 is set to decrease by about R1.97/l and ULP93 by R1.92/l. Diesel, which has been on an upward trajectory for the past couple of months, is set for a decrease of about 78c/l. The unaudited data also points to a decrease in the cost of illuminating paraffin of about 74c/l. The decreases come at a critical time for South Africans who have had to dig deeper into their pockets to fill up their vehicles with the previous cycles of fuel increases. According to the CEF’s data, more stable international oil prices are the main driver behind the potential decreases for November. “There are still two weeks before the official adjustment for November which could still be negatively affected by the upward trajectory of oil prices due to the conflict in Israel,” the AA cautioned. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at BusinessLive. Lees ook, Effense verligting wag dalk op motorist, by Maroela Media
Home Affairs Minister loses bid to appeal ruling on Zimbabwe Exemption Permits BusinessLive reports that Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi has lost his application to appeal a judgment that requires him to reconsider the Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP) regime. The High Court in Pretoria ruled on Monday that his application had no reasonable prospects of success. The court found crucial to determining the prospects for a successful appeal was the quality of the evidence in regard to what the minister had taken into account when he made the decision to terminate the ZEP regime, which allows about 178,000 permit holders to lawfully remain in SA. “What renders the minister’s application destined for failure is the minister’s failure to depose to an answering affidavit in the review proceedings. Only the minister, as the decision maker, could give evidence as to what passed through his mind,” the court said. It also rejected the argument that his decision wasn’t subject to review under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (Paja). Motsoaledi’s spokesperson said the minister had noted the judgment and was studying it. Unless Motsoaledi successfully petitions the Supreme Court of Appeal, he will now have to consider afresh the ZEP regime after a fair process, which would include consulting those affected. The decision means, pending a further decision by the minister, current ZEPs are deemed to remain valid. ZEP holders will continue to enjoy the legal protections they now have and may not be ordered out or detained on the grounds their permits are not valid. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Franny Rabkin at BusinessLive
Eskom sub-contractor arrested for allegedly soliciting bribe from coal truckers News24 reports that an Eskom sub-contractor was arrested on 11 October for allegedly trying to solicit a bribe from a coal transport company at the Camden power station in Mpumalanga. The suspect is a sub-contractor for the power utility's Eskom Rotek Industries subsidiary, which does construction, maintenance and transportation services. Eskom said on Tuesday that he stopped a coal truck driver headed to the station and jumped into the truck with the driver. "The suspect then demanded that the driver contact his employer. The driver contacted his supervisor at the coal transporting company who then spoke to the suspect who attempted to solicit a bribe by requesting a sum of R6,000 (R2 000 for each truck), after which he would allow the coal to be offloaded," Eskom reported. Despite the supervisor not acceding to the suspect’s demands, the trucks were allowed to off-load the coal, which was the correct grade. The conversation between the driver, the suspect and the supervisor was captured through a camera system in the truck. The suspect appeared before the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Read the full original of the report in the above regard compiled by Ahmed Areff at News24 (subscriber access only) Accountant who stole R537 million from her employer, gambled, travelled, and lived the high life, seeks leniency IOL News reports that an accountant who confessed to stealing millions of rands from her employer and spending it living the high life, has apologised and hopes for a lighter sentence. Earlier this year, Hildegard Steenkamp pleaded guilty to 336 charges in relation to the theft of R537 million from her employer, Medtronic. She was arrested in December 2017. During proceedings, the court heard how Steenkamp spent R65 million over a five-year period at a casino and went on international holidays worth R30 million, including regular trips to Dubai. She lived an opulent life. Steenkamp admitted to being an avid gambler, but said she went to casinos to escape her "abusive husband". The State has called for Steenkamp to be handed a 25-year prison sentence. State prosecutor Tilas Chabalala said Steenkamp was not remorseful for her actions because, if she was truly remorseful, she would not have waited five years to plead guilty. He argued that Steenkamp was motivated by greed, and as an accountant, she should have acted in better faith. Sentencing is expected in December. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Se-Anne Rall at IOL News Other internet posting(s) in this news category
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