Labour Regulations in Check: Small and Medium Enterprises’ Workforce Wellbeing Conundrums in South Africa

Abstract

While some labour policies bring dignity to a particular group of employees, other labour policies are purported to be major driving force behind accelerated well-being vulnerability of some employees. However, there is lull in literature about the relationship between employment equity amendments and workforce well-being. With a void of information on the relationship between labour regulations and workforce well-being, it is within this background that this paper sought to investigate the influence of labour policies on workforce well-being with specific attention given to employment equity amendments. Thus, the paper fills a significant lacuna in the literature. The sample for this paper was equated to 226 small and medium enterprises in South Africa. This paper adopted a quantitative research approach, a simple random sampling technique was employed to select a sample in which computer-generated random numbers were utilised in selecting the sample. From the overall viewpoint of the findings, the study indicated that some policies encourage workforce wellbeing while other policies thwarts workforce wellbeing of small and medium enterprises. The study gave a unique work environment perspective which had not been explored before in respect of the impact of amendments to Employment Equity legislation and hence adds significant value.

Keywords

• labour policies
• employment equity amendment
• workforce wellbeing
• small and medium companies
• south africa