REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA COMBINED SECOND PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLE`S RIGHTS
and INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA
HIV/AIDS and Employment of 2000 and it’s Technical Assistance Guidelines (TAG) of 2003
in order to ensure alignment to the ILO Recommendations of 2010. The main aim of the
reviewed Code and TAG is the alignment of terminology, broadening the scope to include
both the infected and affected and to recognise and adopt policies and programmes to
address Tuberculosis as a co-infection to HIV, which makes employees more vulnerable.
The primary objective of the Code and TAG is to provide policy guidelines to assist
employers, employees and their organisations to develop and implement comprehensive
gender sensitive HIV and AIDS workplace policies and programmes.
267.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act was amended in 2002 and in 2013. The Basic
Conditions of Employment Amendment Act, 2013161 was enacted to further improve
conditions of employees. It contains an important amendment that prohibits anyone
from requiring or permitting a child under the age of 15 years to work. It also makes it an
offence for anyone to require or permit a child to perform any such work or to provide
any service that places the child’s well-being at risk. The Amendment Act further
empowers the Minister of Labour to regulate a broader range of matters in sectoral
determinations, changes the Minister’s powers in relation to sectoral determinations and
changes enforcement procedures, which are intended to simplify the Department of
Labour’s ability to take enforcement steps against non-compliant employers and to
access the Labour Court for this purpose.162
Applicable case law
268.
A number of noteworthy court judgments were also handed down during the period
under review. In Minister of Home Affairs v Watchenuka163 concerned the rights of
asylum seekers and in particular the extent to which they may be prohibited from being
employed and from studying while they are waiting to be recognised as refugees. In
Affordable Medicines Trust v Minister of Health of RSA164 the court held that section 22
of the Constitution embraces both the right to choose a profession and the right to
practice the chosen profession.
269.
The case of Union of Refugee Women v Director: Private Security Industry Regulatory
Authority165 involved section 27(f) of the Refugees Act, which granted refugees the right
to seek employment. Section 23(1) (a) of the Security Act limited the refugees’ right to
choose employment only to the extent that they could not work in the private security
industry. While refugees were fully entitled to work in the RSA, the guarantee contained
in section 22 of the Constitution of the right freely to choose a trade, occupation or
profession was restricted to “citizens”.
161
Act No. 20 of 2013
The Act came into operation on 1 September 2014, in other words outside the reporting period.
163
[2004] 1 All SA 21 (SCA)
164
2005 6 BCLR 529 (CC)
165
2007 (4) BCLR 339 (CC)
162
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