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CREATIVE SECTOR: MINISTER UNPACKS WORKING CONDITIONS DILEMMA
- 11 July 2023
- Labour Law
- SA Legal Academy
Employment & Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has attempted to explain why his department is unable to improve working conditions in some creative industries, which he has nevertheless described as ‘exploitative’ and ‘appalling’.
In a written reply to questions from EFF Western Cape delegate to the NCOP, Mbulelo Magwala, the Minister blamed the ‘vulnerability’ of so many South African creatives on:
- ‘the absence of an employment relationship or the existence of a flimsy one’, and
- a state of affairs in which ‘most people' working in the sector ‘are regarded as freelancers or independent contractors’.
The Minister’s response also refers to a December 2019 Government Gazette notice calling for input on proposals for bringing people working in the film and television industry under the protection of various pieces of employment legislation.
Options apparently included a bargaining council arrangement or sectoral determination – each of which would require creatives to be classified as employees under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997, as well as other employment law.
The Minister was eventually persuaded that the ‘unique nature and circumstances’ of the film and television industry are such that ‘an informal self-regulatory framework’ is more appropriate.
Widespread concerns about the pitfalls of self-regulation underpin Copyright Amendment Bill provisions empowering the Trade, Industry & Competition Minister to prescribe minimum standards for performers’ contracts. But is this where the issue belongs?
Employment & Labour Minister’s written reply
December 2019 proposals
Copyright Amendment Bill ‘D’ version (see clause 35)
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch