Mrs Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi attended the Workers Parliament in Newcastle on Friday, 22 May 2015. The theme was “Workers struggle in addressing inequality, creating employments and advancing valuable workers’ rights.”

The workers issues varied from non-compliance by employers of labour legislation to weaknesses in monitoring by the Departments of Labour.

The Newcastle and surrounding areas is an economic hub offering unique job opportunities in the mining, agricultural, textile and business services sectors.

The issue of foreigners as employers was a source of concern and legislation needs to be tightened, as weak areas exist blurring clarity of responsibilities.

In summary, the issues included

• Department of Labour-inspection and other issues affecting workers , non-implementation of labour laws passed
• employment equity plans and mandatory compliance
• foreign employers and their view on employment and labour
• The treatment of foreign nationals in the workplace,
• Complaints and non-existence of employments contracts for example , the security services sector ,
• UIF claim issues with respect to non-registered foreign nationals
• Workplace injuries and awareness of workplace compensation guidelines.
• Employee concerns with respect to the Departments of Education, Health and SAPS.

Given the above, Mrs Rajbansi stated that the multi-party visit and the report of the workers parliament will be referred to the relevant executive members for response and implementing the resolutions taken.