The significance of the amendments made to section 198 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995.

Abstract

In the South African employment context, temporary employment service (hereinafter referred as TES), also known as labour broking, is regulated by the Labour Relations Act.1 Under the previous LRA (prior 2014 legislative amendments), employees of TES have been challenged in respect of exercising their labour law rights and that subjected them to exploitation. Such exploitation called for the government of South Africa to effect some amendments on the LRA with a view to protect TES employees. This was done through Labour Relations amendment Act no 06 of 2014, which came into force in August 2014. The relationship in TES involved three parties, such as, client, labour broker and an employee. A labour broker entered into a commercial contract with a client, in terms of which the former would provide employees to the client. An employment contract will then be entered into between labour broker and an employee. The duration of employment contract would mostly be determined by as long as the client requires services of a placed employee. No employment contract was entered into between an employee and the client. This is despite the fact that a client had directly enjoyed services of the employee.