State plans to control job market

Proposed law could see state recruiting the jobless

IF THE GOVERNMENT has its way, private companies will no longer be able to hire employees without going through a government database of unemployed South Africans.

Failure to do so could result in heavy fines for companies that don’t comply.

This is according to the Employment Services Bill, gazetted in December.

According to the bill, the government intends to establish a public employment service whose task would be to create a database of all unemployed people in the country.

The employment service would then link job seekers to companies that have vacancies.

The bill also stipulates that various employers would have to register all their vacancies with the public employment service within 14 days.

The government would then be expected to provide those companies with the names of possible candidates to fill those posts. If these companies failed to meet the requirements, they would need to provide written reasons for not appointing candidates from the database.

The bill also proposes conditional employment of foreigners. If a company employs a foreigner, it would have to prove to the public employment service that it was unable to find a suitable local candidate.

The government has also vowed to deal with recruitment agencies that charge a fee to job seekers. It has proposed that all agencies be registered or face punitive measures for failing to do so. They also want agencies to charge employers instead.

In addition, the bill provides for temporary workers to be paid at the same rate as permanent workers.

Labour law expert Johan Botes, of the law firm Cliffe Decker Hofmeyer, slammed the proposed bill.

He said it was aimed at allowing the government to run the affairs of the private sector.

“The government must allow the business sector to run its affairs while they continue to govern the country,” he said.

Government departments in South Africa were notoriously inefficient and the labour department was a prime example of poor service delivery. The current employment assistance offered by the department, namely the Employment Services South Africa (ESSA) project, a grossly under-utilised system seldom used by the private sector, was a case in point.