"The government will transform laws to regulate labour broking because banning it will send thousands of people to the jobless queue," a source close to Nedlac told The New Age, adding that the government would seek to curb unfair practices in the labour broking system. The Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill were the nucleus of the negotiations to either ban labour broking or regulate the practice.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven sounded optimistic yesterday, but would not be drawn into predicting the outcome of the negotiations. He pinned the federation's hopes on the great effort it had made to convince the government to ban labour broking. "I don't want to speculate on the outcomes but I hope we will reach consensus," Craven told The New Age. The source said: "I shudder to think what the trade unions will do because the government's refusal to ban labour broking will obviously disappoint them." Craven said Cosatu had given the government one week to respond to the workers' demands, failing which it would embark on another round of industrial action.
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