Michael Bagraim

Labour Lawyer

Signing NHI into law was reckless, the damage will be immeasurable

Michael Bagraim|Published

“Our health system, or what is left of it, has received a mortal blow. The signing of the NHI into law will take the entire health system into the gutter. ”

Labour Department focusing on soft targets while avoiding the pressing issues

Michael Bagraim|Published

Michael Bagraim writes one of the important competencies of the Department of Employment and Labour is to inspect all employment situations across the board. The ...

New requirements will sound death knell of property industry

Michael Bagraim|Published

Michael Bagraim writes that the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority wants to pressure the property industry into bending over backwards to ensure Broad-based ...

South Africans want more than just freedom on paper

Michael Bagraim|Published

‘True freedom remains elusive when people lack jobs and struggle with poverty. We need to create jobs and ensure proper training and education. ’

Make haste to release legislative stranglehold on small business

Michael Bagraim|Published

‘It is also vital, and here I repeat myself, that we do everything in our power to ensure that small businesses not only survive but thrive. ’

Real job opportunities for South Africa’s future

Michael Bagraim|Published

“It is therefore in everyone’s interest to ensure that there is proper oversight in the changes to our Labour legislation and in particular to the regulations hampering ...

Small business – champions of job creation

Michael Bagraim|Published

OPINION: ‘In a country such as ours where the government has failed the education system, it is vital to create a pathway to employment through the small business ...

Department of Employment and Labour wasting millions and destroying jobs in the process

Michael Bagraim|Published

The Department of Employment and Labour is desperately trying to restructure itself to put some emphasis on job creation. Since 2019, it has wasted millions of rand ...

Public money on employment schemes for the disabled can be better spent

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: If you went to any small business in South Africa and asked them what it cost to create a new job they would look at you askance and quite categorically ...

Hope for transforming Compensation Fund and UIF

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: There is currently a proposal by the Department of Employment and Labour to spend R15bn towards the creation of two million jobs. This would be disastrous. ...

Minister needs reminding of the vital role of the CCMA

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: It is interesting to see very few of these questions are from the ANC. Unfortunately, it appears that the researchers for the ministry are invariably flippant ...

Healthcare ailing because of waste and incompetence

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: The reality is many thousands of our nurses, nurse aids, doctors and health practitioners leave the country annually to seek greener pastures elsewhere. ...

Cadre deployment just state capture by another name

Michael Bagraim|Published

OPINION: One would have thought that with the advent of democracy, discriminatory practice would have become part of our odious apartheid history. However, this ...

Employment Equity: Why does government want to hobble large businesses?

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: Draft Regulations on Proposed Sectoral Numerical Targets were printed in The Government Gazette on February 1, 2024. This set of regulations is open for ...

Small businesses would benefit under a new government

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: Banks are warning of an imminent drop in the rand’s value and increased unemployment this year. The negative messaging often has the effect of bringing about ...

Give the country a chance to get back on track

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: It is now when the individuals will be taking a lot more of their ill-gotten gains from the fiscus. The wholesale looting will go unpunished, for now, but ...

It is crucial for us to hold government accountable

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: Employers will hold employees accountable through warnings, potential dismissal or restructuring and retraining. The global employment system cannot function ...

Government must be conducive to job creation

Michael Bagraim|Published

OPINION: In the middle of December, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe suddenly realised that “closed shop agreements” were not the most functional ...

Trust is the cornerstone of employment relationships

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: There is a golden thread that runs through our labour law and all our labour legislation. This thread consists of the trust relationship between the employer ...

Hey ho, hey ho it’s off to work we go!

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: ‘When considering which industries are poised for growth in 2024, we should acknowledge the studies by tertiary institutions and provincial chambers of commerce,’ ...

Teaching labour law to minister – Law 101

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: The Minister of Employment and Labour is facing a crisis with his senior management and staff.

We need a fresh government, one that will bolster employment

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: The archaic socialist myopic viewpoint has been tried for more than 30 years, and it has been a dismal failure. We go downhill every quarterly review and ...

We can increase job creation only if government butts out

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: It would be safe to say that the national government has a role to play in job creation by creating an environment conducive for the business community to ...

In the R5 billion UIF scandal, all the role players need to be probed

Michael Bagraim|Published

COLUMN: The greatest debacle of this inadequacy was the way the UIF handled the payments to the non-working public right throughout the Covid 19 period. To this ...

‘When thieves fall out’

Michael Bagraim|Published

What we do know is that R5 billion was about to be moved to a brand new entity that had been set up just two days before the agreement was signed. We know that the ...