18 August 2010

Despite the ANC’s hostility towards labour brokers, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government happily continues to use their services, a response to a parliamentary question has revealed.

“Four government departments, including Public Works, Human Settlements, Sport and Recreation, and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs are using labour brokers in the current financial year,” said IFP KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson on finance Roman Liptak who posed the question to Premier Zweli Mkhize in the provincial Legislature.

The labour brokers used by these departments include Affirmative Portfolios, Ekuseni Personnel, Unyezi Recruitment, but some of these contracts have been terminated during the course of the financial year. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs puts the figure of employees hired through labour brokers at 30. No other figures were provided.

Last year the ANC appeared determined to ban labour brokers outright at national level although later this thinking was tempered towards introducing laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and outsourcing, and prohibiting certain abusive practices. “The lack of a clear provincial policy on the recruitment of employees which makes no reference to labour brokers does not address any of these concerns,” said Liptak.

The annual Workers’ Parliament hosted by the provincial Legislature has become a traditional forum for an outpouring of bile towards labour brokers whom the unions see as exploitative and redundant. “The ANC in the Legislature has at every turn expressed sympathy for these views,” said Liptak

Last year the IFP discovered that the Department of Health was using labour brokers as a way of bypassing the moratorium on the filling of critical posts. “At least 112 posts, some of them obviously non-critical such as personal assistants or a librarian had been filled since the imposition of the moratorium in August 2008 with the assistance from various employment agencies,” said Liptak.

The Premier’s response states that the Department of Health stopped using labour brokers as of 1 February 2010. The response also stressed that no complaints have been received from employees regarding labour brokers. It is known, however, that last year the Department of Health was under pressure from the unions to render all temporary posts filled with employment agencies permanent.

Contact: Roman Liptak, 078 302 0929