Tool can aid small business

MICHAEL@BAGRAIMS.CO.ZA

WE ALL KNOW that small business is the engine room of job creation, especially in South Africa.

Unfortunately, our labour legislation and even the attached regulations act as a handbrake for job creation. Small business is subject to some of the most horrific and onerous regulatory authority in the world.

As we are unable to avoid the legislation and the highly regulated environment, we need to assist small businesses to understand and implement the various laws accurately.

It is easier for big business to employ experts and have wellresourced human resources teams to steer the business within the parameters of the legislation. However, I daily receive calls from small businesses asking me how they can undo an irregular step they had just taken.

Many of these small businesses find themselves with fines from inspectors, unnecessary court cases in the Labour Court and, to a large degree, numerous arbitrations, merely because they took a business decision without adhering to the various labour regulations.

Even before a small business hires someone, they are obliged to know some of the legislation and are obliged to adhere to it.

And even if the mistake was not wilful and it was done with good intentions it might be a significant cost in both time and money.

Various organisations have put together information web tools designed to guide small business and designed to ensure employers stay within the parameters of our labour legislation, but a lot of these tools are cumbersome and sometimes inaccurate.

To get labour legal advice is costly, and even more so if the advice is given after the mistake. It should be known that about 80% of the cases sent through to the Commission of Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) are because of these costly mistakes.

I am also aware that small business owners are very busy and have little time during the day to attend to convoluted labour legislation.

It has been pointed out by Business Unity South Africa (Busa) that there should be a simplification of hiring and firing and all employment practices. In fact, the global competitiveness report ranked South Africa at 143 out of 144 countries on hiring and firing practices. In essence, we are ill-equipped to comply with the administrative complexities on hiring and firing.

Obviously, it would be best to tackle the government to get it to deregulate the employment environment, especially for small businesses and especially for previously disadvantaged business owners.

The CCMA is well placed to understand where small businesses go wrong and certainly has had over 20 years of experience in identifying where mistakes are made.

The CCMA is a government institution. Working with Busa, it has come up with a highly efficient easily understood web-tool. This tool is already available and can be used at no cost. It gives the user information on the laws and will provide step-by-step guides as to what is required. The tool can be used in conjunction with your normal labour legal advice.

Everyone can access this online labour advice web-tool for South African Small Business at http://smelaboursupport.org.za, or you can access the CCMA website on www.ccma.org. za or call the CCMA call centre at 0861 161616. Thanks to Vanessa Pather.