Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services host an Employment Standards conference in KwaZulu Natal

More than 50 percent of the inspected employers across South Africa have so far been issued with non-compliance notices by the Department of Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) branch, for various contraventions across all labour legislations during the period of June 2021 and March 2022.

This is according to the Department of Employment and Labour’s Advocate Fikiswa Bede, Chief Director: Statutory and Advocacy Services, during the IES’s Employment Standards Conference which has started today (15 February 2023) at the Coastlands Hotel, Musgrave in Durban. Advocate Bede was delivering a presentation on the IES Status of Compliance Report with the purpose to provide a close-out report for the National Roving Team (NRT) Projects which took place from June 2021 to March 2022.

The Conference, themed: “Evolve, Pursue and Overtake”, has been attended by Employment Standards Inspectors from all provinces to discuss the importance of the inspectors’ role on inspections with the aim of protecting the vulnerable workers in different sectors.

The total number of inspections conducted by the NRT is 6415 since the beginning of the project or since June 2021 to March 2022, with the most number of inspections conducted during the Target Recovery Project in Gauteng.

“In terms of the SOP (Standard Operation Procedure), cases for prosecution are referred to Statutory Services of the province wherein the inspection took place to comply with the CCMA and or Magistrate Court jurisdictional rules. The cases are referred through the specialists of both the referring and the receiving provinces. The total number of notices issued across all legislations is 3 093. And the number of non-compliant employers after expiry of the notice is 1 159,” said Advocate Bede.

The National Roving Team (NRT) is a team of inspectors from all provinces across all legislations save for the Employment Equity Inspectors, established in June 2021.

The NRT consists of five teams, with a team leader and eight inspectors from the following disciplines:

• Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA)

• Unemployment Insurance Act and Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act

• Compensation for Occupational Diseases and Injuries Act

• Occupational Health and Safety Act

The areas of non-compliance which have been found are:

• BCEA /NMWA (National Minimum Wage Act)

• Non- payment of the correct national minimum wages

• Failure to provide employees with written particulars of employment

• Failure to provide employees with information concerning pay

• OHSA (Occupational Health and Safety Act)

• Employers are not compliant with risk assessment,

• Failure to keep electrical COC’s of installations in the shops,

• Failure to keep certificate of conformity in the workplace for those working with gas.

• Failure to service fire equipment

• Failure to maintain the Electrical Installation

• Failure to keep electrical Certificate

• COIDA (Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act)

• Failure to keep record of earnings

• Failure to pay of annual assessment

• Failure to register with the fund

• Failure to submit the return of earnings

• UIA (Unemployment Insurance Act)

• Failure to submit declarations

• Employers paying through SARS but failing to submit declarations to the department

• Failure to pay contributions to the fund.

Other speakers during today’s programme included an opening by the Department of Employment and Labour’s Deputy Director-General, Ms Aggy Moiloa- Inspector-General; Mr Thanduxolo Qotoyi – Labour Law Academic – Nelson Mandela University, who presented on the Legislative Updates and Developments in Employment and Labour Law; and The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) Commissioner, Ms Urmilla Patel.

The IES Employment Standards Conference will continue until Friday, 17 February 2023.

Source: Government of South Africa