EMPLOYMENT EQUITY AMENDMENT ACT

• The Department of Employment and Labour issued a media statement pointing to provisions in yet-to-be-published regulations under the Employment Equity Amendment Act, 2022. Apparently agreed by government and its social partners in the National Economic Development and Labour Council, grounds on which non-compliance is likely to be deemed justifiable include:
  • insufficient promotion and recruitment opportunities
  • inadequate numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced individuals available from designated target groups
  • a change in business ownership
  • the impact of an external event such as a state of disaster, and
  • a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration directive or court order.

 

NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE

• The Department of Employment and Labour also issued statement drawing attention to National Minimum Wage Act non-compliance practices for which employers may be penalised. They include:
  • ‘unilaterally’ altering hours of work or other conditions of employment
  • making deductions without an employee’s written consent or in the absence of a collective agreement, court order or arbitration award, and
  • reducing an employee’s wage by the cost/value of transport, tools, board and lodging/food and accommodation, payments in kind, or tips, bonuses and gifts.
• Regarding exemption applications, the statement drew attention to certain requirements, including:
  • ‘meaningfully’ consulting employees and/or any representative trade union beforehand
  • the need for supporting documents such as full financial statements and balance sheets for the current year and previous two years, as well as income and expenditure ‘predictions’, and
  • providing affected employees and/or any relevant trade union representative/bargaining council with ‘a copy of the application downloaded from the system’.

 

FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTRE AMENDMENT ACT

• Sections 6 and 43 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Act, 2017, came into effect on 18 August 2023 by proclamation in the Government Gazette. While section 6 simply changes the title of the principal Act’s Chapter 3,
  • Section 43 inserts a new section 56 in the principal statute, which now provides that an accountable institution failing to report the prescribed information in respect of an electronic transfer of money is not only guilty of an offence but also:
    • non-compliant, and
    • subject to an administrative sanction.

 

LEGAL PRACTICE ACT

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development replaced the regulations on community service for legal practitioners and candidate attorneys gazetted on 11 August 2023. The replacement regulations came into effect immediately.

 

MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT

• The Department of Transport called for public comments on draft regulations for crew accommodation in commercial vessels of at least 25 gross tons and registered in South Africa. Issues covered in the proposed new regulations include:
• heating and ventilation
• drinking water supply, and
• healthcare facilities.

 

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACT

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment called for public comments on draft appeals process regulations under the National Environmental Management Act, 1998.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby