The Portfolio Committee on Labour has advised the Department of Labour and its entities to make their services widely known to the public in order to make sure all labour-related complaints get reported to the relevant office.
In a meeting with the department and two of its entities (Compensation Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund), the committee said the lack of public awareness about the services offered by the department and its different entities often results in confusion on where to report complaints, resulting in matters taking long to be resolved.
The committee suggested that the department and its entities must conduct workshops to make the public aware of the services they offer, to avoid situations where complaints are reported to the wrong offices.
Today the department and its two entities appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Labour to answer questions on how they have gone about handling complaints from the public, that were referred to the office of the Director-General by the committee.
The department and its entities confirmed that plans were underway to undertake advocacy campaigns and the minister’s outreach programme of taking services to the people – to make people aware of the services that the department and its entities offer to the public.
The committee said the workshops to inform and capacitate workers on their rights and available services will make people approach the correct doors for their complaints and will also reduce the pressure from the department.
The committee also instructed the department to intervene in the dispute between grooms and trainers at the North Rand Horse Training Centre in Gauteng, where about 85 horse grooms were retrenched, reportedly without the correct procedure, following an inspection of their work and living spaces by the Department of Labour.