The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the positive increase and renewed focus on workplace inspections by the Department of Employment and Labour under government led by the African National Congress. We appreciate the spirit of collaboration shown by the Minister, Ms. N. Meth and her Deputies, Mr. J. Sibiya and Ms. J. Nemadzinga-Tshabalala, with COSATU in their inspections and efforts to ensure all workplaces embrace and abide by our labour and related laws.
These efforts have been boosted by the Department’s hiring 10 000 additional labour inspectors this year, with a further 10 000 targeted for 2026. This is a decisive intervention to bolster the woefully inadequate 2 000 labour inspectors employed by the Department for an economy of nearly 17 million workers.
It is encouraging that the Department in Semester 1 of the financial year has been able to inspect 250 840 workplaces, up from its target of 233 394.
It is critical that the Department strengthen its partnership with Organised Labour during these inspections, maintain and intensify its momentum but also continue to target high risk sectors notorious for undermining our labour laws, in particular agriculture, construction, transportation, hospitality, cleaning and security as well as infamous hotspots, e.g. clothing factories in the Free State and farms in Limpopo.
The scale of this crisis is confirmed by the Department finding 122 530 workplaces in violation of various labour laws. This is an abomination and cannot be tolerated.
COSATU welcomes the pending prosecution of 8 921 employers for gross violations of the law as well as the raids that have led to arrests and convictions, including the life sentences recently imposed for human trafficking by the Gauteng South High Court.
The pending Ministerial Directive for labour inspectors to also check compliance by employers of their pension fund contributions will be critical to stemming the theft of workers’ pension funds with over 15 000 employers implicated in the Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s most recent report.
It is critical that this progressive work by the Department be reinforced with additional resources, including through the pending Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement due to be tabled at Parliament on 12 November.
Workers have suffered shameful abuses from sexual harassment to rape, from docked wages to stolen pension funds, from unfair discrimination to hazardous work environments. Key to building a winning nation is to enforce the rule of law, this includes our clothing factories in KwaZulu-Natal, mines in the North West, construction sites in the Eastern Cape and fishing vessels in the Western Cape. Economic growth can only be sustained when the rights and dignity of all workers are respected and upheld.
COSATU and its Affiliates will ramp up its joint programmes with the Department to help ensure that the constitutional and legal rights of workers are a lived reality for all.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za
