JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Department of Labour (DoL) continues to advance three Labour Relations Act amendment Bills aimed at protecting the rights of workers, with one currently before Parliament for approval, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant told Parliament on Thursday.

The Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill, which was currently before Parliament, aimed to extend the period within which unemployment benefits could be claimed from eight to twelve months, as well as extend the period within which a contributor could lodge a claim from six to twelve months.

The Bill also looked to extend the scope of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to cover public servants and workers in learnership programmes, besides others.

“This Bill could not be finalised by the fourth Parliament [but] is being resuscitated as we speak,” Oliphant remarked during her budget vote speech, in Cape Town.

The Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill was, meanwhile, being consulted on with social partners in the National Economic Development and Labour Council and would be introduced in Parliament this year.

These amendments, Oliphant asserted, aimed to align the Act with other labour legislations and introduce provisions to regulate “triangular relationships”.

Moreover, the Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment Bill, which was currently going through internal processes within the DoL, would also be tabled in Parliament this year.

“The purpose of this amendment is to align the Act with other labour legislations and introduce provisions that provide a legal framework for the UIF to promote rehabilitation programmes to facilitate a return-to-work objective,” she outlined.

Oliphant argued that the decision to introduce the suite of amendments had been driven by the country’s “international obligations”, poor levels of compliance and the emergence of new forms of employment.

“These amendments will bring clarity to areas of the labour law that were ambiguous, align the law with the case law and address abusive practices that are inherent in various forms of employment, such as labour broking.

“They also address certain aspects of the sectoral determination to ensure that they remain meaningful to workers in the sectors concerned,” she noted.

Oliphant added that other key priority areas for the department this year would be the roll-out self-help kiosks to improve service delivery, building the DoL’s information and communication technology capacity, reviewing minimum wages for vulnerable sectors and advancing the capacity of the inspectorate.

The DoL had been allocated a budget of R2.68-billion for the year.