Protocol:

• Chair/convenor
• Ministers, Deputy Ministers and officials
• Members of the media
• Ladies and gentlemen

As the Department of Employment and Labour, since the start of the pandemic and during the lockdowns, our focus has been on the following areas:

• As a priority, tightening and enforcing health and safety measures in the workplace, keeping workers safe.
• Working through the UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) to mobilise Fund surpluses to provide income support to laid-off workers; and
• Working through Nedlac (National Economic Development and Labour Council) to facilitate social dialogue and build a united response to the pandemic and lockdown across the social partners: government, labour, business and communities.

On Health and Safety

• Our health and safety labour inspectors have worked with Nedlac to draft directions and regulations in response to the new conditions of the pandemic – covering PPEs, masks, hygiene, and redesign of workplaces to increase social distancing.
• Of course, regulations will not help if they are not enforced. Our inspectors were active during the pandemic – inspecting, enforcing and advocating and explaining the new regulations to employers.
• Our statistics indicate that these measures were successful – largely preventing workplace outbreaks, and with workplace infection rates well below community infection rates.
• But we were also preparing for the long-haul. During 2020/21, the Department employed and trained 500 additional new health and safety inspectors. This will allow us to quadruple the number of workplace inspections during the coming year – with a target of nearly 100,000 inspections.
• These measures became all the more necessary during the second wave of the pandemic, driven by the Beta variant, as the pace of infection increased. We have now entered the Third Wave of the pandemic, driven by the Delta variant. The rate of infection has again greatly increased.
• But we have the regulatory regime and the capacity to inspect and enforce already in place – to cope with the new challenges.
• Let us remind ourselves that in making workplaces safer, we not only protect lives, we also protect livelihoods and economic activity – which allows us to continue to function as a society.
• This week, my Department will finalise a rapid response plan to inspect workplaces across all provinces for compliance with health and safety regulations. The labour inspectors have collected detailed statistics on non-compliance across sectors, areas and employers (and this includes the public sector, I am afraid to say) – and this knowledge will inform the inspection plan.
• On a very positive note, let me also flag that the most recent Health and Safety Direction agreed at Nedlac includes a plan – with the support of labour and business – to utilize workplaces in the roll out of vaccines.

On Income Support

• During the pandemic, the UIF Covid19 Ters benefit scheme has distributed R60 billion to over 500 million laid-off workers – supporting them, their families and businesses and communities across the country.
• In response to the move to Level 4 lockdown, the UIF management has been locked in discussion with their actuaries to find surplus monies to address the new conditions. Remember the UIF has a duty to safeguard the funds of its contributing members for the day when they have to draw down on the Fund for ordinary UIF benefits in the case of retrenchment and unemployment. So paying out Covid19 Ters benefits has always been something of a balancing act.
• Meanwhile, the social partners will be engaging at Nedlac this week to thrash out a plan for income support.
• From the side of the UIF, we believe we will be able to afford to support laid-off workers, in sectors which have been closed by government, in particular the alcohol industry, over the 14-day lockdown.

On Social Dialogue and Solidarity

• The President has consistently argued for social dialogue as we face our challenges as a nation. We therefore cannot over-emphasise the importance of the work of Nedlac in facilitating engagement between the social partners and a united response to the pandemic and the lockdowns. This is all the more urgent in the face of the Third Wave.

So as we address issues of health and safety and income support during the Third Wave, we must also keep front of mind the need to constantly communicate with our people, and engage with social partners to maintain social dialogue and solidarity in the face of the threats and challenges that the pandemic brings in its wake.

Thank you.​

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