Inspectorate urged to be bold as the Department’s Inspections and Enforcement Services exceeds its targets.

The Department of Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) branch exceeded its target of inspections achieving a 105 percent rate for the 2022/23 financial year.

Department of Employment and Labour Chief Director of Statutory and Advocacy Services, Advocate Fikiswa Bede said that out of the 312 792 inspected employers, 238 233 (76%) were found compliant and 74 559 (24%) were non-compliant. She said out of 74 559 of the non-compliant employers 72 898 were issued with enforcement notices. This constitutes 98% of notices issued to non-compliant employers.

Bede unveiled the numbers during a Department of Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services branch – Employment Standards conference held in Durban at Olive Convention Centre. The theme of the conference is: “Accelerating Compliance of an equitable South African Labour Market”. The conference ends on Friday.

The focus of inspections relates to legislation such as: Employment Equity (EE) Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), Employment Audit Service (Unemployment Insurance), Employment Payroll Audits (Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases), Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act.

In terms of the EE Act the target was 3 324 inspections and 4 725 inspections were conducted which constitutes 142%. Of the total inspections conducted 2 578 designated employers were found to be compliant and this number constitutes 55%. A total of 2 147 (45%) of the designated employers who were inspected were found non-compliant and 2 016 (94%) of them were issued with Director-General Recommendation/notices with which to comply within the required time period.

The areas of non-compliance with EE Act relate to an appointment letter not signed by the CEO, EE Managers not appointed with the required resources and budget, attendance registers not indicating the designated groups represented by the committee members, analysis conducted post the development of the EE plan, EE plans do not show reasonable progress towards transformation in line with goals and numerical targets set by employers and failures to implement recommendations.

For BCEA there were 168 008 workplaces inspected against a target of 168 864 which constitutes 99.49% of the targeted inspections. Out of the 168 008 workplaces inspected, 151 345 (90%) were found to be compliant and 16 663(10%) were classified as non-compliant.

A total of 16 463 non-compliant employers were issued with notices and this makes 99% of the non-compliant employers. The areas of non-compliance in regard the BCEA include: ordinary hours of work, issues on overtime, pay for work on Sundays, maternity leave, written particulars of employment, keeping of records, payment of remuneration, information about remuneration, powers to question and inspect, co-operation with labour inspectors, payment of remuneration, deductions and other acts concerning remuneration, non-payment of National Minimum Wage, sick leave, family responsibility, annual leave, , payslip and written particulars of employment.