Dear Editor
The DA will conduct oversight visits to CCMA offices to ensure that new Codes of Good Practice on Dismissal are being implemented in small business cases. The Department of Employment and Labour has done nothing to make CCMA commissioners aware of these new rules, leaving an open question as to whether they are being implemented in practice.
Making it easier for small businesses to hire more people, is a step in the right direction for the new Codes of Good Practice on Dismissal. The new codes will make hiring easier, because they make dismissal easier. The unreasonable and unacceptable burden which labour relations rules have placed on South African small businesses to date, have destroyed their willingness and ability to create jobs, for too long.
Small businesses must be the key sites of job creation in South Africa – they account for half of all formal employment and 60% of the new jobs created every year. Making it less burdensome for small businesses to hire will unlock more jobs for South Africans.
Small businesses without large HR departments cannot undertake long and detailed investigations or have extensive pre-dismissal procedures, like big corporations do. That has been a significant burden on them, which can now be alleviated by the new Codes.
It is now explicitly stated businesses size and capacity should be taken into account when considering unfair dismissal.
These codes must be fully implemented, without any delay. To ensure full implementation, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will conduct oversight visits to CCMA offices, to ensure the amended Codes of Good Practice on Dismissal are being implemented, and allow small businesses to flourish.
The OECD has ranked SA’s regulations as among the most restrictive compared to our peers, and hiring and dismissing employees under a burdensome labour relations system has contributed significantly to this.
For cases of probation, it is now codified that employers can dismiss employees who do not meet performance requirements or the workplace culture, and don’t need to provide warnings to this effect. This is an excellent development to make it easier to hire the right persons for the job and workplace.
Small business employers now do not need to fear that they will be locked into a contract with an unsuitable employee, which often stops them employing new workers from the start.
The DA’s oversights at the CCMA will ensure that no small business is left behind and that more South Africans can contribute to the growth of the economy.
Regards
Michael Bagraim MP
DA Spokesperson on Employment & Labour