This submission will address the Strategic Objectives of the Department of Labour as outlined by the DG of Labour – Adv Rams Ramashia in his presentation to the portfolio committee as well as the eight programmes in Vote 17. The recommendations will however be focused on programmes 3 – Social Insurance, 4 – Employment Skills Development Services, 5 – Labour Relations and 7 – Service Delivery.

Conduct research on:

In terms of the above-mentioned strategic objective it would be imported for the Department of Labour (DoL) to ensure that any research that is conducted is inclusive of disability specific data so as to facilitate a broad based implementation programme that is inclusive of the needs of employees with disabilities.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is currently considering a policy relating to co-operatives and it would be important to the DoL to collaborate with DTI to ensure maximum benefit for, and participation of people with disabilities, women and youth (community sector) in this program.

The community constituency welcomes the learnership campaign but our concern is that the DoL does not have formal strategy to include young people with disabilities in this campaign. We would like to suggest that part of the allocation for this campaign must be specifically earmarked for the following;

1. To train SETA’s, employers and training providers on how to accommodate disabled people within learnerships.
2. To provide the necessary reasonable accommodations for the learners within these learnerships such as sign language interpreters, job coaches, to enable equitable participation of people with disabilities in these programmes.

• We propose that the NSF also be used in ensuring that direct and meaningful participation of the community constituency within the NSA, at provincial level and within their own organizations. This will enable us to move at the same speed and capacity as organized business and labour.

• The NSA should ensure that the guideline document on how to access NSF is popularised amongst community constituency and put in accessible formats to people with disabilities.

• The decision makers within SETAs and employers would need to be strongly persuaded by both the community constituency and NSA to change some personnel policies and practices and create a climate that is positive towards diversity.

• The DoL must ensure that past habits of skills development spending, which concentrated on upper levels and overlooking women and people with disabilities, are changed. Of course skills development should be closely linked to all employment equity initiatives.

• Women and people with disabilities in most cases take an option of self-employment and these initiatives should be nurtured and supported by the DoL through a collaborative program with the DTI.
• The community constituency urges the DoL and the DTI to work closely together to ensure that through their procurement practices they support these SMME initiatives.

• We are proposing that the NSF should also be used in ensuring that direct and meaningful participation of community constituency within the NSA, at provincial level and within their own organizations.

• In terms of the allocations in programme 4 we would like to propose that an approach of integrated budgeting rather then targeted budgeting be adopted. However we would like to place on record that none of the current allocations must be reduced or taken away.

• The community constituency extends an invitation to the DoL to discuss the concept of integrated budgeting as it relates to people with disabilities.

We recommend that a specific study be commissioned on the benefits derived from the NSDS by the designated groups with emphasis on gender and disability.

The community constituency welcomes the recently launched on the Code of Good Practice on the Employment of People with Disability. We however would like to urge the Department of Labour (DoL) to revive the process of the development of the Technical Assistance Guideline (TAG) for this Code, which is halfway completed. Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) was contracted by the DoL to develop these guidelines but the process was discontinued by the end of November 2002. We would therefore like to appeal to the department to allocate funding to ensure the finalisation of the guideline. The Code and the guidelines are important tools to enable employers to meet their disability employment equity targets and in this regard we urge the DoL to develop a strategy to popularise these tools in order to maximize its benefits to both employers and employees.

Our Labour Legislative Framework is one of the most sound frameworks in the world, however we sadly lack the ability to enforce this framework and we would therefore like to propose the following;

• In terms of programme 5 regarding allocations to the CCMA we would like to suggest that there should be a specific allocation for a bridging program for complainants between the DoL and the CCMA. This program will be to build a capacity of ordinary people to know how to access the CCMA to clearly articulate their case when they go to the CCMA.
• We would like to advocate for an increased allocation for labour inspectors to ensure that the employers are monitored with regard to the implementation of the legislative framework.
• A mechanism needs to be put in place for the monitoring of the employment equity reports submitted by employers as it relates to their disability employment equity targets.
• Representation by the community constituency on the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC) to assist labour and business to monitor the implementation of the Basic Conditions Employment Act. There has to be specific representation in this regard from the Disability Sector to ensure that the link between the implementation of the Code of Good Practice on Disability and employment conditions is effectively monitored.
• A training program for officials of the DoL, CCMA commissioners and labour inspectors on diversity.
• There needs to be a relationship between the Department of Justice and DoL in terms of providing legal support to complainants that needs to defend their cases in the Labour court as the previous support from the Legal Aid Board does not exist anymore.

We welcome the sectoral demarcations for domestic and farm workers and in this regard we want to propose that a specific allocation within program 7 for a comprehensive capacity building programme for domestic and farm workers to exercise these newly found rights.

A specific allocation to support to the Department of Home Affairs needs to be made to accommodate the needs of migrant workers who becomes disabled whilst working in South Africa in terms of reintegrating them back into the work place or providing them with the necessary skills to start their own businesses or else assisting them to return to their countries of origin.

Disability sensitisation training for occupational health and safety officers within companies should be promoted and supported by the DoL so as to reduce the myth that disability is an occupational health and safety hazard.

There should also be training for trade unions and employer organisations on how to support employees that becomes disabled due to an occupational disease or accident.

The disability sector participated extensively in the process around on a Comprehensive Social Security System lead by the Department of Social Development (DoSD) and made specific recommendations regarding Unemployment Insurance. We would like to propose that there should be a closure linkage between the DoL and DoSD to fast track the recommendations made in the Taylor Committees Report on Unemployment Insurance.

We welcome the new emphasis on protecting the rights of domestic workers as this was previously excluded from the Act. We however would again like to appeal for a specific allocation on training for domestic workers to understand their responsibilities and their rights in terms of accessing Unemployment Insurance Benefits.

The current implementation of COIDA is insensitive to the needs of people with disabilities as it currently makes use of a system that equates the amount of compensation with the number of body parts lost. We see it as the butchered system for example, if you lose a finger then you are defined as 1% disabled whilst as you might become paralysed as a result of an accident you would be seen as more than 30% disabled and the compensation in above mentioned scenarios would be allocated accordingly.

This system therefore does not look at re-integrating people with disabilities into the workplace but rather encourages them to become recipients of disability grants. We would therefore like to propose that there should be an allocation for research on the impact of this system and the return on investment for the DoL and employers as the administrator of the system and the main contributor to the system.

There should also be a link between the Skills Development Fund and the Compensation Fund with regard to providing the required reasonable accommodations that would enable employers to support the re-integration of employees with disabilities into the workplace.

There needs to be a linkage between allocations for this programme and allocations within the Skills Development Strategy for bursaries for scarce skills because the bursary scheme for people with disabilities are operating in isolation of other programmes within the DoL.

The Department of Labour is currently considering restructuring this scheme and linking it with the National Financial Aid Scheme. This restructuring process will only be successful if the staff of the National Financial Aid Scheme is retrained to understand this specific needs of students with disabilities.

There also needs to be a linkage with the Department of Education (DoE) as they are one of the primary Funders of the Financial Aid Scheme. Currently the Department of Labour’s Bursary Scheme provides for the payment of books and assistive devices that excludes human assistive devices such as sign language interpreters, readers and personal assistants. Sign language interpreters are supposed to be employed by the DoE but the department refuses to do so, whilst the DoL provides a bursary to a deaf student, which ultimately leaves the deaf student without assistance to complete his or her studies.

This is a programme that provides employers a small amount as an incentive to employ people with disabilities. We would like to propose that this Subsidy Scheme be restructured to a fund for reasonable accommodation and that the funding for this scheme be increased and provided for under the National Scheme Fund as we believe this will assist employers to meet their disability employment equity targets.

An impact study of this program needs to be conducted to enable the DoL to evaluate and assess the return on their investment.

In addition to the above recommendations we would like to conclude by emphasizing the following recommendations:

1. The concept of Integrated Budgeting should be considered by the DoL and we would like to commit ourselves to assist the department in investigating this concept.
2. We would like to appeal to the DoL to adopt an intersectoral approach and collaborate with other departments when implementing programme 4 and 7 stated in Budget Vote 17.
3. although we support the points noted in the Director General of Labour’s presentation with regard to Public Works programmes, we do not support these programmes in its current form and call for an evaluation of the Public Works programmes in terms of their impact on the lives of people with disabilities, youth and women.

We would like to thank the Portfolio Committee for extending this invitation to us to make this presentation and also inviting Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) to the Public Hearings on Employment Equity.