SA Coat of Arms.jpg Address by the Minister of Labour Mildred Oliphant on the occasion of the 12th COSATU National Congress held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Gauteng, 25 November 2015 Viva ANC Viva!!! Viva SACP Viva!!! Viva SANCO Viva!!! Long live COSATU Long Live!!! AMANDLA!!! Comrade Chairperson President of COSATU, Comrade Sidumo Dlamini Acting General Secretary, Comrade Bheki Ntshalintshali The National Office Bearers of COSATU and its Affiliates Leadership of our Revolutionary Alliance Ministers and Deputy Ministers, here present Former National Office Bearers Esteemed Delegates to this Congress Distinguished Guests Members of the Media Comrades and Friends It is important to note that 2015 is the 30th Anniversary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. During this period COSATU has gone through remarkable evolution, fought many battles in its wake, recorded countless achievements in its journey and continues to be a notable player in shaping the transformation discourse in South Africa. The challenges of today can't be solved by the tactics and remedies of years gone by. The twenty first century challenges need 21st century solutions. Comrade President; I submit that this congress presents an excellent opportunity to take stock of how much progress has been made since the 11th National Congress in 2012. It also gives all of us the opportunity to identify weaknesses and opportunities going forward so that we can tool and retool for the road ahead. In my experience, the working class has never been afraid to engage and advance their views on political and policy matters and in most cases it succeeds. It can be argued that the most significant and highly contested amendments to the labour laws came in the period 2013 - 2014 when all the key labour laws went through significant re-alignment. The quest for social justice finds expression in recent amendments, inter alia: . The Labour Relations Act No. 6 of 2014 . The Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Act, No 20 of 2013 . Employment Equity Act No. 47 of 2014 . Employment Services Act No. 4 of 2014 These laws provide the much needed space for workers to organise themselves into strong trade unions. There are only about two Freedom Charter demands that I can think of which have not been met to the fullest. Achieving a forty hour week and setting a National minimum wage are but the two. Outside of these two, our labour laws are a true expression of the Freedom Charter. Judging from the noises we hear about our labour laws as being too protective of the workers in general and vulnerable workers in particular, suggests that we are doing exactly what our constitution and the electorate that voted the ANC into power not once, but five times in a row, demanded of us. Therefore we should celebrate and defend these revolutionary gains and take full advantage of the space that they provide. Comrades and Friends, The recent labour law amendments introduced the new paradigm in advancing the quest for social justice. We revisited every single aspect of the labour law that unwittingly constraints our constitutional obligation to foster social justice. Let me now turn to some of the key highlights of the Labour Law Amendments which include, but not limited to: ONE; UNDER ORGANISATIONAL RIGHTS, The LRA makes it much easier for unions to obtain rights within the organisation. Commissioners can now give majority rights to sufficiently represented unions who do not necessarily have majority representation in the bargaining unit. In the past you had to have 50% + 1 union representivity to qualify for majority rights such as the right to union representatives and access to information; today even in cases where a union does not command a 50% +1 representivity, a Commissioner may award majority rights to a union that is considered to be sufficiently representative, as long as no other union in that workplace already has majority rights. TWO; UNDER THE EXTENSION OF A COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT; A Commissioner may now extend a collective agreement to a 3rd party. That is; a Commissioner can enforce Collective agreement between a TES and his employees, on the client, and vice versa. THREE; The Definition of DISMISSAL has also changed: In terms of Section 186, a dismissal is no longer just limited to the termination of a contract of employment by an employer, but termination of any employment. This means that, where an employee is stationed with the client of a Temporary Employment Service, and the client decides to terminate his employment, the employee can refer the client to the CCMA irrespective of the contract with the Temporary Employment Service, due to the fact that the employment relationship is between the employee and the client. Failure to offer permanent employment once a fixed term contract has lapsed can be seen as unfair dismissal, where the employer cannot justify why no such permanent appointment can be made. Any dismissals will be automatically "unfair" if the reason for the dismissal is that the employee refused to accept a demand in respect of any matter of mutual interest between them and their employer - e.g. pay cut, longer hours. Such changes are now left solely to the ambit of collective bargaining. Where an employee is not required to work their notice period and the employer ops to pay out the notice period, the date of dismissal is the day when the notice expires or day employee receives final payment, whichever comes first. From: http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/media-desk/speeches/2015/address-by-the-ministe r-of-labour-mildred-oliphant-on-the-occasion-of-the-12th-cosatu-national-con gress-held-at-gallagher-estate-in-midrand-gauteng -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. 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