Basic Conditions of Employment Act is
most onerous of all, says Richards
DON'T PANIC in the face of the various new labour bills facing the freight forwarding industry. Instead investigate the mechanisms available to avoid restructuring, says Hennie Richards, chairman of MITB:F&C.
Managers have the expertise to manage their way through the Acts confronting them instead of packing up and emigrating, as some have told me they are thinking of doing in desperation, he says.
Industry as a whole is faced with the Employment Equity Bill, the SA Qualifications Authority Act and the Skills Development Bill, all of which present disruption in the workforce and the work place.
But, says Richards, what the freight industry has to face square on is the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, which he feels will have an impact on the industry itself.
This is the most onerous one of them all. When it hits the freight industry it will automatically add 5% to our cost structures, he says.
But what I have seen is that quite a few companies have taken pre-emptive measures to prepare themselves for what is happening. This is because MITB took a decision to
educate and inform SAAFF
(SA Association of Freight Forwarders) members at various employer and employee association meetings.
Industry, as a whole, has been warned that 18 months down the line they will be faced with the reality of the bills, at which stage they will be required to meet the requirements, where companies with 50 or more employees or with a turnover of R4 million annually will be affected.
SAAFF has disclosed that its membership alone includes 10 companies with more than 200 employees, eight with between 100-200 and a further 17 with between 50 and 100.
There are also 32 companies with an employment register of between 21 and 50 and they must be made fully aware of the situation, says Richards.
The Equity Bill still needs to address the concerns of the small and medium business concerns, and there are a great deal in our industry that fall into this category. Here I am pleased that Business South Africa has gone public in warning them of their requirements.
MITB is offering a guidance service right now. The Skills Development Bill, for instance, wants industry boards to gather into sectors. There is a possibility that MITB will find itself firmly situated in the transport sector, with cargo handling, marine affairs and fishing under one heading.
Dealing with the need to pay one percent of payrolls as an RDP donation, as opposed to the levy fund to which the freight industry already devotes itself, Richards says an effort will be made to get exemptions in this respect.
Otherwise the levy stamp will have to disappear, he says.
The subsidy outflow, however, has has quadrupled since the start of this year. The funds are now being utilised which shows that the industry is starting to pay far greater attention to the needs of training.
By Leonard Neill
