Let me say a word about labour brokers. They are currently being debated by this department and we believe that as many as 3,7 million people are employed on a temporary or short-term basis in South Africa. I note the references to the labour brokers by almost everybody in the House today.
The hon Minister has been reported in the press castigating many labour brokers for exploiting workers. According to reports in the press, he has referred to labour broking as human trafficking and claimed that companies sold workers to the highest bidder, and called this a criminal activity.
Unfortunately, these inflammatory statements make no distinction between bona fide employment agencies, such as the Kelly Group, Adcorp or companies like these, who find temporary work for the unemployed people out there, and unscrupulous labour brokers who violate the basic human and constitutional rights of their workers.
However, these distinctions do exist and they must be emphasised. Is the Minister seriously implying that Kelly Girl is engaging in human trafficking because they place temporary secretaries in air-conditioned offices in Sandton? Clearly, we need to draw distinctions between these brokers. [Interjections.]
As far back as 2003 at the Labour Law Conference, the Minister referred to the fact that labour brokers should be stopped because of exploitation - and exploitation is a bad thing. However, this begs the question: Where are the amendments? If the Minister and the department had known about the exploitation of workers by labour brokers since 2003 at the very least, then why do we not have before us today an amendment to the Labour Relations Act or regulations to protect the workers?
I would urge the Minister to desist from sparking panic in the industry with threats of shutting down all labour brokers, and to instead concentrate the efforts of the department on coming up with measures to protect workers most at risk.
Is new legislation actually what is required? Just yesterday I called the head of a labour brokerage to talk to him about this matter. He commented that he had been in the business for over 10 years ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]