Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) have collaborated to launch a free-touse Web Tool dedicated to help smaller businesses with labour relations processes and matters.

The joint initiative is one of the flagship projects outlined in the Presidential Jobs Summit Framework Agreement and has gone live following intensive testing and content mapping.

The project germinated from a BUSA study conducted in 2015/16, which showed that small businesses struggled with labour relations and that this was a key impediment to their formalisation and willingness to employ. Also, of concern â€" and a key spark to conceptualising the Web Tool â€" was that CCMA statistics
reveal that an estimated 80% of the institution’s dispute cases originate from small businesses.

The joint BUSA-CCMA Web Tool has up-to-date information including the recent amendments to Employment Law that factor the National Minimum Wage Act, as well as contract templates, information sheets and guides on labour law requirements.

Small business owners can utilise the user-friendly Web Tool to source information about: how to recruit; how to manage employees and build sound workplace relationships; how to end the employment relationship in a fair manner; and much more.

The Web Tool project falls in line with the National Development Plan’s (NDP’s) ambitious forecast that no fewer than 90% of new jobs will be created by small businesses.

However, red tape and significant bureaucratic hurdles have been cited for the high failure rate of small businesses in South Africa, as well as the country’s low levels of grassroots entrepreneurial activities. BUSA and the CCMA believe this Web Tool will go a long way in unburdening small businesses from having to navigate through regulatory hoops.