Johannesburg - The International Labour Organisation (ILO)
believes labour market regulations are not too rigid in South Africa and cannot
be blamed for high unemployment, it was reported on Monday.
According to Business Day, in an interview last week ILO
South African director Vic van Vuuren attributed unemployment to fragile
economic conditions, skills mismatches and problems with education.
He was speaking after the African Development Bank claimed
that labour regulations were "excessively rigid" and contributed to
youth unemployment.
South Africa's unemployment rate was almost 25%, which
equated to almost four-and-a-half million people out of work.
Van Vuuren said: "When we look at our labour laws and
we analyse them and compare them to other best-practice countries, I don't
think we have a rigid labour market that is preventing youth employment or
employment in general".
However, the newspaper reported that Adcorp labour analyst
Loane Sharp disagreed, and said the World Economic Forum rated South Africa's
labour regulation as one of the world's worst.
Amendment Bills to the Labour Relations and the Basic
Conditions of Employment Acts are being considered by Parliament's portfolio
committee on labour.
"They're adding more regulation and what we need is
less regulation.... (The amendments) are even more restrictive than the Labour
Relations Act of the mid-1990s," Sharp said.
According to Business Day, Business Unity SA claimed the
amendments, which could grant temporary workers equal rights to permanent
staff, could lead to 215 150 job losses.
