Hon Speaker, hon members of the National Assembly, hon Deputy President and colleagues, today I am pleased to introduce the Employment Services Bill. This Bill seeks to give effect to the 2009 election manifesto of the ANC, which promised decent work for all workers, as well as to protect the employment relationship, introduce laws to regulate contract work, and subcontracting and outsourcing, address the labour brokering problem and prohibit certain abusive practices.
The Bill also seeks to contribute to the government's objectives of more jobs, decent work and sustainable livelihoods by repositioning public employment services to play a major role in employment promotion and employment preservation, and will also assist employers, workers and work seekers to adapt to changing labour market conditions.
The strategic objectives will be achieved through institutional arrangements that the department will further establish to provide free services to citizens, such as registration of job seekers, registering of placement opportunities, matching services, referral to education and training and careers information. The department will regulate private employment agencies providing similar services in the private sector to protect vulnerable workers.
In addition to this, the Bill allows the Minister to issue regulations requiring employers to register vacancies in specified categories of work. The Bill will further permit the Minister to introduce schemes to promote the employment of work seekers, to assist employees facing retrenchments to remain in employment, and to promote the rehabilitation and re-entry into employment of employees injured on duty or who have contracted an occupational disease.
Working in consultation with the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister can also introduce regulations providing steps to be followed before employing foreign nationals in the South African labour market. The Bill also provides a legal basis for the re-establishment and expanded scope of supported employment enterprises to provide employment for people with disabilities who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. It also aims to transform this service into a training resource for specific projects like the making of school furniture and other deliverables.
Let me thank the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac, social partners for their commitment to social dialogue and for their extensive engagement with regard to the proposed Bill. I would also like to further thank the members of the portfolio committee for their contribution. I should also like to thank the many interested parties and organisations that submitted written comments on the Bill to the department.
I am pleased to table the Employment Services Bill today and recommend it to the House for adoption. Thank you. [Applause.]