Answers to the questions? A critical analysis of the amendments to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 with regard to labour brokers

Abstract

Temporary employment services (TESs), or labour brokers as they are more commonly known, have been used in South Africa since the 1950s, but they were not regulated by the Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956 (1956 LRA) in force during that time. This Act did not contain a definition for these services, thereby not even acknowledging their existence. Yet TESs became more popular in the 1980s, and it was only when the Labour Relations Amendment Act 2 of 1983 (the Amendment Act) commenced that TESs were granted legal recognition by means of a statutory definition. The definition in the Amendment Act has remained in section 198 of the more recent Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (1995 LRA), apart from a slight change in formulation and the replacement of the word 'labour broker' with 'temporary employment service'. Not only did the Amendment Act insert a definition within the framework of the 1956 LRA, referring to it as a 'labour broker's office', but it also addressed various other relevant aspects.