An appropriation of R2.53-billion had been allocated to the Department of Labour (DoL) for the 2014/15 financial year, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant announced on Tuesday.

This allocation was R80-million higher than the adjusted 2013/14 allocation of R2.4-billion of which R2.37-billion was spent, with the increase mostly owing to the carry-through effect of salary adjustments. 

Delivering her 2014/15 Budget Vote speech in Parliament, Oliphant stated that the department’s key priority areas included initiating high-level dialogue on the key challenges in the labour market environment and investigating the "modality" for the introduction of a national minimum wage as one of the key mechanisms to reduce income inequality.

Oliphant noted that while the country’s legislative interventions to redress these undesirable elements of the "old dispensation" had had some levels of success, there were still many challenges ahead.

“The South African labour market institutional framework remains sound and for those who have short memories, the labour laws of this country are heralded as among the best in the world. What we must all accept is that the labour market environment is dynamic and a highly contested policy terrain the world over,” the Minister said.

She stated that raising awareness of amended labour laws to encourage compliance was another one of the DoL’s strategic priorities.

The DoL also planned to progress the amendment of the Unemployment Insurance Act, with changes relating to improvements of benefits as well as administrative aspects relating to the submission of information by employers to the fund.

“[Further,] the amendment of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act is required to develop a rehabilitation, reintegration and return to work policy for injured workers and workers affected by occupational diseases,” Oliphant said, adding that the Occupational Health and Safety Act also had to be amended to address shortcomings relating to the way health and safety was being managed in the workplace.

In addition, the DoL would also strengthen the inspection of enforcement services, work with the State Information Technology Agency to stabilise its information technology work stream, strengthen the role of public employment services and reposition and strengthen South Africa’s supported employment enterprises.

The DoL also planned to address the challenge of infrastructure with respect to labour centres, improve its communication and outreach programmes and start the due processes surrouding the appointment of a director-general for the department and filling all vacant senior-management positions, Oliphant explained.

Further, the Minister said the department would also work to address the challenges at the compensation fund.

Meanwhile, Oliphant announced that, during the 2014/15 financial year, the DoL would create a second socially responsible investment (SRI) fund under the umbrella of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to the value of R2.7-billion to amplify the work the department was doing to contribute to job creation.

The DoL created the first R3-billion UIF SRI fund during the 2013/14 financial year, which was focused on investments in priority sectors, small, medium and micro-sized enterprise development and social infrastructure.

In addition to the SRI, the UIF would also continue to fund Productivity South Africa’s Turnaround Solutions programme, with R58-million to be allocated to this during the current financial year.