By Johnathan Paoli
The Congress of SA Trade Unions has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent proclamation of certain provisions in the Companies Amendment Acts.
Cosatu parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks on Sunday commended the government for bold pro-worker anti-corruption laws, as a step in the right direction of fighting corruption and labour inequality within the country.
“These progressive and long overdue Acts will advance the war against crime and corruption, further empower the state to deal with grey listing and most critically compel listed companies and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to disclose their financial reports to workers and the wage gap between their highest and lowest paid employees to their shareholders,” Parks said in a statement.
He said that together with its affiliate, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union, Cosatu engaged extensively on the legislation at the National Economic Development and Labour Council and in Parliament, as they supported the fight against SOE and private sector corruption, as well as more equitable and just wage structures.
He said the legislation would see large businesses and SOEs having to publish more information about their remuneration policies, which would allow workers, shareholders and the public to compare companies’ wage gaps and help shareholders determine whether executive pay was morally justified and reject executive remuneration where it was excessive and unjustifiable.
Parks said the new amendments would assist in uncovering previously hidden ownership of companies which allowed for corruption, fraud and illegal sources of funding.
“Cosatu and Sactwu are encouraged that these Acts will boost the war on corruption, money laundering and state capture by concluding the process started earlier at Parliament to compel businesses to disclose the actual persons owning them and not merely obscure trusts or shelf companies,” he said.
The two Acts, namely some sections of the Companies Amendment Act and the entire Companies Second Act, were signed into law in July this year and became operational over the weekend.
However, the sections that require regulations will only become operational once the regulations have been finalised.
Additionally, other sections regarding the presentation of the remuneration report and policy, as well as the duty to disclose pay gap ratios, were only expected to come into operation on dates to be determined next year.
The Companies Second Amendment Act addresses the recommendations from the Zondo Commission to extend the time bar of when an application can be brought to court to make an order to declare delinquency or probation from 24 months to 60 months.
It further empowers the court to extend the time bar to hold directors liable for costs, losses or damages, beyond the previous three-year limit to five years under appropriate circumstances.
Parks said labour would push for engagements to begin on further amendments to overhaul the Companies Act to address problems workers experienced when companies were placed under business rescue, as well as to provide for worker representation on company boards to enhance transparency and build trust between employers and workers.
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