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 Tuesday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related reports.
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Strike by municipal employees not off the table in final round of wage talks this week BL Premium reports that while a debilitating strike is not off the table, the country’s two largest municipal trade unions are hopeful parties will reach an agreement during the third and final round of wage talks at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC). The last round of talks between the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu), and the SA Local Government Association (Salga) – the employer body representing the country’s municipalities – was scheduled to run from Monday to Friday this week. Samwu general secretary Dumisane Magagula commented on Monday: “We are still at 9%. If we don’t find each other, then the first step would be to consider the facilitator’s proposal. If we don’t accept (the facilitator’s proposal), we will go back to our members for a mandate. They could say declare a dispute and the next step would be a strike.” Imatu president Keith Swanepoel said: “We are still where we are [at 9%]. We have just resumed negotiations this [Monday] morning. Nothing has happened. We would like a facilitator’s proposal by end of business on Friday, which we will take to our members for consideration. We are always hopeful that parties will find each other.” Salga revised its offer from 3.5% to 3.75% during the second round of wage talks in July, but the unions said it was so poor it could not be taken to members for consideration. According to the proposed offer, which the unions rejected “in its totality”, employees earning R22,000 a month or below would receive a once-off ex gratia payment of R3,000. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Old KZN provincial legislature building in Ulundi not fit as a workplace EWN reports that the Public Works and Infrastructure Department in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) says the old provincial legislature building in Ulundi is not conducive for working. The building was used as the legislature during the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)-led government’s tenure. Two weeks ago, newly appointment Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer inspected the building and found that there was a lot of infrastructure damage that needed fixing. Last year, the provincial legislature debated whether the legislature should return to its old building in Ulundi, which was something the IFP strongly advocated for and was still pursuing. However, Meyer said that on the basis of the inspection, the building was not fit for use and indicated: “There are a lot of challenges with that building and it concerns me because there various government departments that use that building for their offices and his majesty the King uses it for his office as well, and it’s not in a state fit for the staff of this government and his majesty to use.” Pointing out the challenges, Meyer said: “Lack of water and toilets that is not working, that is unacceptable.” However, he advised that there were plans in place to upgrade the building. Read the original of the report in the above regard by Nhlanhla Mabaso at EWN Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Goldplat ordered to reinstate five Amcu members who were unfairly dismissed for joining the union BusinessLive reports that in a judgment that affirms the right of workers to join unions, the Labour Court has ordered Goldplat to reinstate five employees it dismissed for being members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). The court ordered their reinstatement with back pay, citing violations of their rights to freedom of association as enshrined in the Labour Relations Act. The employees were dismissed on 31 August 2016 for joining Amcu and recruiting other employees to the union. The gold recovery company defended its actions by expressing fears of a potential repeat of the Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012 in which 34 striking miners were killed. “According to the respondent’s only witness, management was concerned that the presence of Amcu may result in ‘another Marikana’,” the court noted. Amcu represents nearly 70% of the Goldplat workforce. Though the union holds organisational and collective bargaining rights, no formal recognition agreement has been established yet. During the proceedings, Amcu claimed that its members’ dismissals were “automatically unfair” under section 187(1)(d) of the Act, and breached their rights to freedom of association protected by section 5 of the Act. The Labour Court concurred, finding that the company’s actions were driven by hostility towards Amcu. Judge Reynaud Daniels found the testimonies of the dismissed employees to be credible, consistent and corroborated by each other. The judge dismissed Goldplat’s argument that reinstatement would result in retrenchments or impose a compelling operational burden on the company. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nompilo Goba at BusinessLive
Challenging SA job market shows year-on-year decline in hiring activity Moneyweb reports that CareerJunction’s latest employment insights report reveals a concerning trend in SA’s job market, with a notable decline in hiring activity during the second quarter (Q2) of 2024. In Q2, hiring activity saw a 5% increase, but this was overshadowed by a year-on-year decline of 7.2%. Over the two-year period from Q2 2022 to Q2 2024, hiring activity decreased by 5.5%. The report highlights year-on-year declines or stagnation in key sectors including Administration, Office & Support (-13%), Business & Management (-3%), and Finance and IT (-21%). The report indicates that recruitment for Admin, Office & Support roles has been sluggish over the past four quarters. While IT hiring continues to decline, the demand for IT professionals remains robust. The finance sector has experienced little change in hiring year-on-year. According to the report, during Q2 2024 jobseeker engagement remained strong and increased by 20% year-on-year from Q2 2023 to Q2 2024, and by 13% over the past two years. IT professionals, who were previously headhunted, were more actively engaging with the job market as demand for their skills moderated. CareerJunction comments that report underscores a challenging landscape for SA’s job market, with declining hiring activity across key sectors. However, the increase in jobseeker engagement offers a silver lining, indicating a robust pool of talent actively seeking opportunities. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Terri-Ann Brouwers at Moneyweb Poor literacy contributing to SA’s youth unemployment, says expert The Citizen reports that South Africans continue to search for possible reasons and solutions for the high rate of unemployment in the country. According to Nazeer Hoosen, CEO at The Federated Employers Mutual Assurance, one of the reasons for the high rate of unemployment is poor literacy. He says it is worrying that the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report revealed that 81% of grade 4 learners in SA cannot read for meaning. Hoosen is of the view that the poor literacy level in SA is a barrier for the youth when it comes to future career prospects. There are different ways in which poor literacy hinders the youth from getting mid-level and higher positions. Moreover, due to the creation of Artificial intelligence (AI), there is going to be a reduction in entry-level positions. A 2023 report by edX, an online education platform, estimates that 56% of the entry-level positions will be taken over by AI over the next five years. Jobs that will be available will require a higher education qualification or specified skills. Poor literacy is also explained to be a barrier to effective skills development. Hoosen points out that the ability to develop new skills is important in today’s continuously changing world. Being able to develop new skills with ease will help the youth to navigate both work and personal life. “With companies de-centralising operations to embrace remote work structures, written communication will replace verbal discussions to a larger extent,” Hoosen notes. Many employees in future will need to have the ability to provide clear communication, as they will be expected to communicate effectively and professionally in written format. Hoosen believes both parents and teachers should prioritise instilling a love for books and reading in children from an early age. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tshehla Cornelius Koteli at The Citizen Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Sex trafficking of Basotho women into SA rages on, US report shows BL Premium reports that the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, produced by the US State Department, indicates that complicity between SA and Lesotho officials has enabled sex trafficking of Basotho women into SA to continue with “impunity”. According to the report, traffickers recruit victims from neighbouring countries and rural areas in SA, particularly Gauteng, and exploit them in sex trafficking locally and in urban centres, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. “Observers reported prior cases of sex trafficking of Basotho women from Lesotho in SA brothels; however, due to alleged official complicity of both Basotho and SA officials linked to the brothels, they continued to operate with impunity. Traffickers exploit Basotho women in sex trafficking and domestic servitude and men in labour trafficking, particularly in the mining and textile sectors, in SA,” the report found. SA’s high unemployment and socioeconomic stratification increased vulnerability to exploitation, particularly of youth, black women, and foreign migrants. The report identified social media as one of the platforms traffickers used to find victims. This was done via fake job advertisements on social media and classified advertisement forums, including advertisements for webcam modelling, hospitality, mining and domestic work. SA police last week rescued 90 Ethiopian migrants who were being held against their will at a property in Johannesburg. Police said the migrants, believed to be victims of human trafficking, were packed into small rooms and kept locked up. The US state department report has urged SA to increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, including complicit officials, which should involve significant prison terms. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kabelo Khumalo at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Annual leave not a ‘piggy bank’ system, so employees must take annual leave or lose it Richard Brown of Herold Gie Attorneys writes that a new judgment from the Labour Court stresses that taking a break every year is one of an employee’s fundamental rights, but reminds employees that leave not taken within six months of the relevant leave cycle would be lost without any later payout. The judge emphasised that while an older court decision questioned whether leave not taken must be forfeited and suggested it could be accumulated instead, that view had now been convincingly rejected. Leave can’t be used by employees like “some kind of piggy bank” to store up a lucrative cash payout when they left their jobs, acting judge Sean Snyman pointed out. The case concerned car salesperson Ivan Hartley, who was head hunted by the Land Rover franchise in Umhlanga to take up the role of dealer principal. He started the new job on 1 April 2013, but five years later Hartley took his employer to court to claim to 73 days of accumulated leave. Snyman reviewed earlier decisions from the courts on the question of accumulating leave. One judgment from which he quoted at length reads that the whole purpose of the act is to “ensure that an employee takes annual leave” and that an employer may not refuse employees their “entitlement”. Allowing leave to accumulate would let both employer and employee get around the law. Snyman said though one judgment suggested that accumulated leave wouldn’t be forfeited, it was now “fairly settled” that this was not the correct approach. “Employees must know that they have to take their leave, or else they will lose it. That way, they will be motivated to enforce their rights [and] take their leave,” Snyman pointed out. For that reason he rejected Hartley’s claim. Read Richard Brown’s informative article in full at BusinessLive
Tardiness costs Free State TVET lecturer her R300,000 per year job TimesLIVE reports that a Free State lecturer who was repeatedly late for work and isolated herself in the boardroom has lost her nearly R300,000 per year job. Mokhuwa Nyakallo, who lectured at Motheo TVET College Central in Bloemfontein for 20 years, was fired in February. This came after she arrived late at work for a period of 30 days, but the critical incident was when she spent three hours shut in the boardroom instead of invigilating students. Nyakallo hauled the Department of Higher Education and Training before the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) in a bid to save her job. However, the ELRC dismissed her application this month. The 15-page ruling details Nyakallo's odd behaviour. Arbitrator Mothusi Maje was asked to determine whether Nyakallo’s dismissal was “substantively fair and whether the appropriate sanction was meted out by the respondent”. Nyakallo provided reasons for why she had arrived late at work, inter alia that the employer was underpaying her salary, and she did not have a car to drive in the morning to be on time at the workplace. Her defence included that she first needed to drop her child at school. She also claimed that she had raised the issue of her employment contract with the employer, which must indicate the time to start working in the morning and the knock-off time, but employer refused to alter it. Nyakallo complained that she had not attended the invigilators' training. She denied locking herself in the boardroom and claimed she was not aware she was supposed to invigilate. But Maje was not convinced and dismissed her application. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Timna Mgunculu at TimesLIVE
Former Eastern Cape Home Affairs clerk sentenced to five years for passport fraud The Citizen reports that a former administration clerk at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in Cleary Park, Eastern Cape, has been sentenced to five years direct imprisonment for passport fraud. “Tony Stout unlawfully and intentionally used the identification details of South African citizens to alter the photos of foreign nationals. He fraudulently provided them with South African passports,” Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana reported. Stout’s sentencing came after he was arrested by the Hawks officers in Gqeberha on 26 March 2021. He made several court appearances until his sentencing by the Gqeberha New Law court on 8 August 2024 for nine counts of fraud and nine counts of contravention of the Identification Act of 1997. According to Mhlakuvana, the sentence had no option of a fine and Stout was declared unfit to possess a firearm. In a separate case on 1 August, former DHA official Judy Zuma was sentenced by the Durban Commercial Crime Court to 12 years’ imprisonment for passport fraud. Zuma was found to have processed 192 passports between 28 May and 12 June 2021 for foreign nationals who did not qualify to have them. She was paid R4,000 for each passport. Zuma was recruited into this scheme by another former DHA official, Zima Shange, who was sentenced to an effective 10 years’ imprisonment in October 2023. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Oratile Mashilo at The Citizen Special Tribunal declares invalid PPE contract worth R257m entered into by Gauteng health department News24 reports that the Special Tribunal has declared as invalid a R257 million personal protective equipment (PPE) contract that the Gauteng health department awarded to Nkhane Projects and Supply. It also ordered the contractor within 30 days of 5 August to submit audited statements showing income and expenses related to the PPE delivered under the contract. The Special Tribunal's judgment comes after an investigation found that Nkhane had made an unsolicited proposal to the Gauteng health department outside of a competitive bidding process. "No request was made for a deviation from normal procurement procedures, and none of the required procurement prescripts were followed," Special Investigating Unit (SIU) spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago indicated. He added that the judgment was expected to bring finality to a High Court case in which Nkhane was demanding payment of R89,350,280.10 from the Gauteng health department. The amount included R60,863,045 for goods already delivered but not yet paid for. It also included R28,487,234 for goods ordered by the health department, but in in respect of which it was refusing to accept delivery. The High Court case was formally stayed by the SIU, pending the finalisation of the tribunal case. This judgment is said to signify a crucial step in addressing corruption and ensuring accountability in PPE procurement during the Covid-19 pandemic. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kaveel Singh at News24 Two Midrand Highway Patrol officers arrested for alleged kidnapping and extortion of ‘illegal miner’ TimesLIVE reports that the Springs Magistrate's Court has postponed the case against two police officers arrested by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for alleged kidnapping and extortion to Wednesday for a formal bail application. Constables Thabiso Pule Molefe and Paseka Matena made their first appearance on Monday after their arrest last Thursday. According to Ipid spokesperson Phaladi Shuping, the two police officers, aged 31 and 33, allegedly instructed a man in Springs, Pita Muthisse, to get into their vehicle and drove off with him after accusing him of being involved in illegal mining. Shuping said the police officers allegedly handed the man to Basotho nationals who demanded R2m for his safe return. They later lowered the ransom to R150,000 and then R20,000. “The incident was reported to Ipid, and the two police officers stationed at Midrand Highway Patrol were arrested,” Shuping indicated. Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Shonisani Tshikalange at TimesLIVE Manager, an employee and another person arrested after armed robbery at Brits Mall shop IOL News reports that shop manager, Reborn Chiloane, a shop employee Regomoditswe Mmethi and a third suspect were set to appear before the Brits Magistrate’s Court on Monday after the business was robbed. North West police spokesperson, Colonel Adéle Myburgh, said Chiloane and Mmethi appeared in court on Wednesday last week in connection with a business robbery at the Brits Mall. The two were employees at the shop where the robbery took place. “The shop had just opened on Monday, July 29, at about 8am and the employees were still entering the shop, when two suspects came inside the shop and threatened them with firearms,” Myburgh reported. The stunned shop employees were ordered to hand over money. The robbers also seized cellular phones and laptops before they fled from the shop. “On Wednesday, August 7, information was received and operationalised by police, leading to the arrest of Chiloane and Mmethi. Police also seized eight stolen cellular phones and two laptops,” said Myburgh. A third suspect, aged 35, was arrested on 8 August by the police investigators. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jonisayi Maromo at IOL News
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