Natal Witness - 28 June 2011

Keeping Warm

Winter is certainly here! Pronel Ladies kept nice and warm at Pronel by having a "hat and scarf" day!

Pronel Scores 135% !

Amendments to Labour Law

Happy New Year to you!

Judging by the wonderful start we have enjoyed thus far, Pronel is really looking forward to seeing continued growth in 2011.

As you are all aware, draft amendments to the Labour Bill were published late last year.  Such amendments are open for public debate and comment until mid February 2011 when, it is expected government will make a ruling on these amendments. The current debate surrounding the regulation of Temporary Employment Services (Labour Brokers) is not new.  Calls for the banning of labour brokers have been discussed by unions, since 2000.  In 2009, just ahead of national elections, the debate entered the public domain.  Point one of the ANC election manifesto stated: 

’In order to seek to avoid exploitation of workers and ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment relationship, introduce laws to regulate contract work, sub-contracting and outsourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices’

APSO, will take the matter to the Constitutional Court, as successfully undertaken in Namibia in 2009 should, legislation be passed, that is not conducive to business.  Below see comments from Professor Paul Benjamin from Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA):

For your interest, I have summarized some of the key issues as received from APSO (Associated Personnel Services Organisation).  These amendments to the Act are going to be hotly contested by both business and Cosatu in public hearings which, have already started.  

GOVERNMENT CONCERNS THAT PROMPTED THE REVIEW OF EXISTING LABOUR LEGISLATION:

·Decent Work in relation to a-typical employment arrangements

·Difference in wages and benefits

·Lack of access to benefits i.e. medical aid, provident fund, maternity

·Limited access to training and development opportunities

·Insecurity associated with part-time, temporary work

·Use of “temp” indefinitely, long term with the same employer

·Report abuses

·Dismissal without proper procedure

·Low rate of unionisation

·Failure to extend Bargaining Council Agreements to cover TES employees

·Some TES contracts exclude “right to strike”

·Some TES contracts exclude the right to join a union.

(TES – Temporary Employment Services)


The act includes numerous amendments, however, the main issues facing employers, regardless if you make use of Temporary Employment Services, are:

·All fixed-term employees will be considered permanent unless the employer can prove otherwise

·Temporary employment will effectively cease to exist; the only options being permanent or justified fixed-term contract

·The triangular employment relationship is repealed (s198) effectively prohibiting the use of TES as an intermediary

·Changes to the definition of employer

·Requirement to pay fixed-term employees the same wages & benefits as permanent staff

·Joint and several liability for sub-contractor (employer) and client company in respect to any unfair labour practice within an outsourced or subcontracted environment

·All vacancies will have to be reported to the Department of Labour within 14 days

·Second generation outsourcing agreements would be covered by the s197 transfers of business obligations

·Attempt to make Arbitration Awards (CCMA) have the same status as High Court Awards

·Fines ranging from 2% – 10% of turnover for noncompliance with Employment Equity legislation

I urge you to contact our offices should you require any further clarity on this issue and any of the other proposed amendments to Labour Legislation.  Alternatively, we welcome you to visit our website on www.pronelkzn.co.za for regular updates or, the APSO website www.apso.co.za to access all draft bills and various newspaper articles that have featured this contentious issue.

Yours in Personnel

BRIDGET JONES
MANAGING DIRECTOR

Pronel Newsletter

Hello there

Few people would disagree that this has been one frenetic year.  A year filled with contradictory speculation with regards to our economic climate, lots of soccer, Patrick Lambie, Julius and Brietling watches!  I know that my team are eagerly awaiting their Christmas breaks but are also in shock that it has come around so quickly!

PRONEL has had a challenging year.  As a result of the much debated value of Labour Brokers, and their threat to ‘decent work’, many temporary contracts were terminated, leaving us with more work-seekers than usual and a slightly greater desperation in the unemployed market.    If I am to be honest, I think one of our toughest jobs this year has been dealing with this desperation.   

“For many people a job is more than an income – it’s an important part of who we are.  So a career transition of any sort is one of the most unsettling experiences you can face in your life”  Paul Clitheroe.  It is therefore perfectly understandable that human behaviour will indeed be affected by employment trends.    The time and energy my staff has spent with work-seekers trying to encourage and let them down gently has required huge effort.    We must field over 100 calls per day of registered candidates desperate for information on their application.   This coupled with the slow movement within client companies to make decisions, because of internal restructuring and economic concerns, has definitely provided us with a whole new set of challenges.

However, having said that, we have sustained this volatile market and enjoyed some surprising growth in the recruitment of permanent staff.  We have welcomed back Gill Bure, who has been assigned the task of taking Pronel national.  Our website has been modified and linked to some excellent candidate search engines, ensuring that we get the best possible response to the vacancies we have.  We purchased beautiful new offices in Kloof  and have developed some internal systems that enable the Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town offices the ability to work more closely together.  This has huge benefits for our clients as now the net is cast way wider when we do our candidate search and you, as the client, have more than one consultant working for you.

PRONEL STAFF

Pronel has always been particularly proud of their stable staff compliment.   In doing an exercise for a tender the other day we realised that we boast nearly 100 years of personnel/recruitment experience, although we think we do not look a day older than 25!

Bridget Jones– Managing Director    25 years industry experience

Liezel Corbitt– Ops Manager, Permanent Division  13 years industry experience with Pronel

Karen Short– Ops Manager, Temporary Division  11 years industry experience with Pronel

Edwina Brien– Branch Manager, Durban 5 years industry experience with Pronel

Janine Elliot  - Senior Recruitment Consultant, 8 years industry experience, 6 years with Pronel

Sharon Fourie– Senior Recruitment Consultant, Durban, 9 years industry experience with Pronel

Kathryn Bosse– Technical Recruitment Consultant, 1 year industry experience with Pronel

Kelly Turner-  Pronel Personnel Cape Town, 5 years industry experience with Pronel

Kalai Emmanuel– Administration Manager, 8 years industry experience with Pronel

Gill Bure  -National Business Developer, 15 years industry experience, 8 years with Pronel

 It is Pronel Personnel’s policy to ensure that staff are constantly trained and kept abreast of the changes in any labour legislation and recruitment market trends.  Pronel also invests in the personal development of each staff member to ensure that staff, where possible, are guaranteed job satisfaction.

RECRUITMENT TRENDS TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

At a recent World Employment Conference held in Brazil this year speakers from across the globe all concurred that we are in for many changes.  Factors that will impact us most notably will be technology, generational differences, global changes and the lessons learnt from the most recent global recession.  Youth entering the employment market in 2015 can expect to have more than 10 to 14 jobs before they turn 38!  That is a surprising change of job every 2 years.  Our focus will no longer be on skills competencies, but on the flexibility and adaptability of the prospective employee.    Large data bases within recruitment companies will become obsolete, giving way to the ability to source and deliver scarce skilled individuals using modern technology.   Our labour pool will become borderless.   As a result of critical skills shortages, and the fact that 40% of the world’s population resides in Brazil, Russia, India and China, it is anticipated that the work will move to where the workers are.    It is also believed that workers with skill will become more demanding and have considerably more leverage resulting in a more diverse labour market.  For Pronel to keep ahead in this fast changing market we need to look at working more closely with global business partners.  This is of course also a great excuse for more overseas holidays!  Despite the fast changing markets it is believed that more than half the global workforce will remain in traditional permanent roles and small business will continue to outnumber the large ones.    We will keep you abreast of any further developments or exciting changes afoot during 2011.

From the Pronel team we wish you a wonderfully relaxing festive season.  We hope you have the opportunity to recharge your batteries in order that you are ready for the exciting challenges of 2011.

Yours in Personnel

BRIDGET JONES
MANAGING DIRECTOR- PRONEL PERSONNEL

Our New Blog!

Pronel Personnel is quickly getting up to speed with all the lastest online crazes and finally we have created this blog! We plan to keep everyone updated on vacancies, news and all sorts of other Pronel info. If there is anything followers would like to see on our blog or any suggestions, feel free to email them through to proneltech@pronelkzn.co.za and we will do the best we can to make our blog more user friendly!

Have a lovely weekend!