Understanding the Regulatory Environment for Small Business in South Africa

Title	Paper
The Labour Relations Act and its Impact on the Growth of SMEs	This paper examines issues such as the exemptions clause, hiring and firing procedures, bargaining councils and so on, and the extent to which they may inhibit the growth of the SME sector. Regulated Flexibility and Small Business: Revisiting the LRA & the BCEA  DPRU Working Paper 06/109 Halton Cheadle, Professor of Public Law, UCT
The Regulatory Efficiency of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)	The broad idea here is to examine the speed and efficiency of dispute resolution through the CCMA. It involves a detailed analysis of the referrals data that the CCMA has, together with settlement rates and the speed of resolutions. The Regulatory Efficiency of the CCMA: A Statistical Analysis DPRU Working Paper 06/110 Paul Benjamin and Carola Gruen
The Impact of Municipal Regulations and By-Laws on the growth of SMEs	The intention here is to examine the suite of laws and regulations at the municipal level and to analyse the extent to which they may constrain the growth of the sector. Impact of Municipal Regulations on SMMEs DPRU Working Paper 06/107 AFReC,  BEES and MCA Planners
Taxation, Tax Law & Administration and the SME sector	Studies of this sort have already been commissioned by SARS and the DTI, and hence the request seems to be for a synthesis of these various reports. Recent findings on tax-related regulatory burden on SMMEs in South Africa DPRU Working Paper 06/105 Genesis Consulting
Sector-specific Regulations and the SME sector	Certain sectors have exemptions or one kind or another aimed at the SME sector. However such regulations define the small business sector differently and are not well aligned. A study that firstly brings together all this differential legislation and then suggests a more optimal regulatory regime would be useful. The impacts of sector-specific policies and regulations on the growth of SMEs in Eight sectors of the South African economy DPRU Working Paper 06/112 Small Business Project
Small Business and the Regulatory Environment in South Africa: A Synthesis	As is clear, this final output within the project bring together the key results from the above sub-studies. The idea is to draw in a researcher or institution not involved in any of the individual studies, so as to ensure some value-added in the consolidated report. The regulatory environment and SMMEs: Evidence from South African firm level data  DPRU Working Paper 06/113 Neil Rankin
Bargaining Councils, Exemptions and SMEs	The research examines the different forms of regulation of conditions of employment (i.e. bargaining council agreements, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), and sectoral determinations) and what sort of accommodation they make for small firms. Conditions of Employment and Small Business: Coverage, Compliance and Exemptions DPRU Working Paper 06/106 Shane Godfrey, Johann Maree and Jan Theron

 JIPSA and Related Skills Development
The Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acqisition (JIPSA) is a working project in support of Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA)

Title	Paper
Review of Skills Shortages in South Africa Project	This paper is a review of existing literature, with value added provided in succinctly identifying as much detail as possible with respect to within discipline skills shortages. The objective of the review is firstly to situate the analysis of skills within the broader labour demand context. Thereafter, details of specific sectors and sub-sectors are reviewed. The report concludes by summarising the findings of scare skills and discussing the various methods that have been proposed to facilitate skills transfer. Skills Shortages in South Africa: A Literature Review  DPRU Working Paper 07/121 Reza C. Daniels, Lecturer, School of Economics, UCT
The International Literature on Skills Training with Selected Themes for South African Policy Application	This paper aims to place, in the South African policy context, selected issues from the international literature on skills training. The main lessons are that skills training resembles education in being partly a public good. Problems of information, incentives and market power preclude the emergence of a training equilibrium in which individual workers and employers pursue their interests efficiently. The international literature on skills training and the scope for South African application. DPRU Working Paper 07/124 Sean Archer, School of Economics, UCT
Skills Development Act: The role of Setas	The research was project managed by Renee Grawitzky. Associates working on this project included a number of Seta specialists. Whilst the primary research was undertaken by Renee Grawitzky, some input was provided by Gwen Ansell on specific areas such as education and training provision. Setas – A Vehicle for the Skills Revolution? DPRU Working Paper 07/125 Renee Grawitzky

The Labour Regulatory Environment in South Africa

Title	Paper
Labour Market Regulation	This paper considers some of the suggestions made by Cheadle (2006) in his  concept paper. These include dismissals, unfair labour practices, appointments and promotions and collective bargaining. It also suggests that other changes to our labour laws are necessary, including the need for a doctrine of equal pay for equivalent work, the regulation of labour broker arrangements and other atypical employees, and the manner in which terms and conditions of employment can be amended. Besides legislative amendments it argues against the demise of the Labour Court and for greater administrative and judicial efficiency in that court.  An Exploratory look into Labour Market Regulation. DPRU Working Paper 07/116 Anton Roskam
	This paper is a response, from a business perspective, to Halton Cheadle’s concept paper titled ‘Regulating flexibility: Revisiting the LRA and the BCEA’ (DPRU Working Paper 06/109). This paper seeks to respond to each of the issues raised by Cheadle, and to his reflections on each. Regulating Flexibility and Small Business: Revisiting the LRA and BCEA. A Response to Halton Cheadle’s Concept Paper DPRU Working Paper 07/119 Andre van Niekerk
	The research examines the current state of collective bargaining, the nature of existing bargaining structures, alternative models that have developed, and the problems being experienced in the current system. The impact of collective bargaining on small business is also an aspect of the research. The aim was to understand how labour policy and regulation can better support collective bargaining. The State of Collective Bargaining in South Africa: An Empirical and Conceptual Study of Collective Bargaining DPRU Working Paper 07/130) Shane Godfrey, Jan Theron and Margareet Visser The World Bank’s Doing Business survey seeks to measure and compare the costs to business of various types of regulation, including labour regulation.  Focussing on labour regulation, the study considers the validity of endeavours to measure labour regulation, and identifies a number of methodological problems that constrain any such endeavour. It then focuses specifically on the methodology utilised in the Doing Business survey, and its results for South Africa. It presents evidence that certain scores arrived at in the case of South Africa are incorrect, materially affecting South Africa’s ranking in terms of the survey. Costing, Comparing and Competing: Developing an Approach to the Benchmarking of Labour Market Regulation DPRU Working Paper 07/131) Paul Benjamin and Jan Theron