Luphert Chilwane and Thebe Mabanga

Four bills initiated when controversial government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi was director-general at the Department of Labour have been rejected as “badly drafted” and a threat to business and investors.

The bills will have to be redrafted after they were rejected yesterday at a seminar. A new draft from National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) is expected to be completed by November.

The event was attended by representatives from business, labour and civil society organisations. In their current form, the proposed laws on employment, job creation and economic growth, would adversely affect business, according to speakers at a seminar organised to examine the impact of the bills.

Manyi had gone on public platforms to urge the cabinet and legislators to pass the bills, when he was suspended as Labour’s director-general.

A sign of the apprehension of the cabinet over the content of the bills was the step of commissioning a regulatory impact assessment of the laws before they had been released for public comment.

The assessment, by a panel of four labour law and economic experts, found that the laws could have adverse consequences for employment creation and economic growth.

“We are being forced to mitigate the damage and we hope to create an environment that will be conducive for business,” said Jonathan Goldberg, a labour lawyer and a representative of Business Unity South Africa at yesterday’s event.

Among other things, the bills aimed to eradicate labour brokers by repealing a section of the Labour Relations Act, and fining companies up to 10% of their revenue for repeatedly failing to comply with employment equity laws.

Goldberg called the bills “radical” and said close to 1 million employees placed by employment agencies could lose their jobs if they became law. Labour Department spokesperson Page Boikanyo said: “No redrafting of the bills is taking place, but a discussion.