Sa’s labour laws among best in world

Van Blerk (2007-05-11) Johannesburg – Preliminary outcomes of South Africa’s labour market policy review indicated that the country had some of the best labour laws in the world, Nedlac, the government, labour and business negotiating chamber, said yesterday. Executive director Herbert Mkhize told parliament’s labour portfolio committee that labour law experts could not find anything wrong with the policies. “They say there is absolutely nothing wrong with our labour market polices – the problem was in the managing and administration of the policies,” he said. Local labour market policies were cited by international experts as one of the economic development constraints that could threaten the government’s accelerated and shared growth initiative for SA. The government then asked the department of labour to conduct a study on the impact of the policies on economic development. “The minister of labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, has already conducted three round-table meetings with experts and other stakeholders,” Mkhize said. The main problem area identified in these meetings was that of the implementation and administration of the policies, not the policies themselves,” he added. Because the review was still ongoing, Mkhize said it would be difficult to tell at this stage what the outcome of the process would be. On whether the setting of minimum wages by the government in some sectors was not evidence of overregulation, Mkhize said this was only done in sectors were workers were vulnerable to exploitation. Meanwhile, Mdladlana is expected to announce a sectoral determination for the hospitality industry in Cape Town on Monday.