Legislation: Employment services regulations out for comment

Draft regulations on the registration of private employment agencies and temporary employment services have been gazetted for comment by 27 January 2019, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. Once in force, they will give practical effect to section 13 of the 2014 Employment Services Act and will repeal regulations in place since June 2000 under the 1998 Skills Development Act. Comment is sought within the same timeframe on two other sets of draft regulations developed under the Employment Services Act and dealing with work seeker registration and the employment of foreign nationals. This is noting that, among other things, the Act: provides for ‘the establishment of schemes to promote the employment of young work seekers and other vulnerable persons’; and aligns measures relating to the employment of foreign nationals with the requirements of the 2002 Immigration Act.

Against that backdrop, the proposed new regulations on registering a private employment agency or temporary employment service: prescribe the criteria to be met, the procedures to be followed and timeframes within which each step of the process should be complete; prohibit certain activities (including directly or indirectly charging work seekers fees for services rendered); and spell out the requirements of all registered agencies and service providers. Among other things, the draft regulations on work seeker registration: require anyone applying for ‘ordinary benefits’ under section 17 of the 2001 Unemployment Insurance Act to be registered on the data base envisaged; and limit registration to the holders of ‘valid 13-digit identification documents’.

The draft regulations on employing foreign nationals under section 8 of the Employment Services Act prescribe the criteria to be met by a prospective employer applying for a general work or corporate visa on behalf of one foreigner or more: either with skills not to be found among South African citizens or permanent residents; or better suited to the work concerned than local candidates. This is noting that, in satisfying itself that a foreign national is the best possible candidate for the position to be filled, a prospective employer ‘may make use of public employment services or private employment agencies’. While cross-referencing errors in the proposed new regulations tend to suggest that some clauses are missing, it is nevertheless clear that, once in force, they will make it mandatory for any employer of a foreign national to ‘ensure’ that his/her skills are ‘transferred’ to local people and the process entailed fully documented.

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