Meth was talking on the sidelines of the blitz inspections being conducted by the department on Wednesday in Gauteng restaurants. She oversaw the inspections which were conducted in collaboration with home affairs, police and the Bargaining Council for Hospitality.
“I am appealing to employers [to accept] that the honeymoon is over. We are coming for them. They must make sure that they know labour laws and regulations and if they don`t we will help them to know what the law says,” she said.
She said employers are expected to know regulations when they own businesses.
In one of the restaurants the minister visited with the inspectors in Waterfall, Midrand, it was discovered that some of the employees were foreigners without proper work documents.
Inspectors checked on the conditions of employment, whether regulations were being followed, the state of the restaurant and if the employer complied with the National Health and Safety Act.
She said employers don`t delve into the details of the documents in terms of who they are employing.
“Our main concern in the hospitality sector is the issue of noncompliance with the laws, in particular those that regulate employment. Our responsibility working with the department of home affairs and the police is to ensure that we enforce [the law],” she said.
She added that the bargaining council in the sector had discovered that some of the employees had joined an unregistered union, employers included tips as part of workers` salaries and employees were not paid minimum wage.
In one restaurant, an employer and three employees were taken in for questioning by police as the employees didn`t have the right documents.
Maggie Pooe from the Bargaining Council of Restaurants in Gauteng said the main problem was that employees were paid less than the minimum wage.
She said many workers in the sector were undocumented foreigners.
“Last week in Sandton, one restaurant was literally closed down because they were employing people with no papers - I am saying to employers, do the correct thing, comply with regulations,” she said.