On Collective Bargaining, Advisory Arbitration and Legal Intervention: The 1995 Labour Relations Act as a Product of Criticism of the 1956 Labour Relations Act
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2024/v27i0a16947Keywords:
Advisory arbitration in the public interest, section 150 of the 1995 LRA, section 150A–D of the 1995 LRA, collective bargaining, voluntarism, third-party intervention, third-party discretion, duty to bargain in good faith, Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956Abstract
The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (hereafter the 1995 LRA) is a product of criticism of the Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956 (hereafter the 1956 LRA). While there were also other points of criticism of the 1956 LRA, those of particular importance for the current discussion included that it allowed for too much legal intervention in collective bargaining (after the fact) and that the system provided too great a scope for third-party discretion in the resolution of collective bargaining disputes. Aiming to address these weaknesses, the 1995 LRA promised "to achieve certainty and to leave as little as possible to the discretion of administrators and adjudicators." It is against this background that this article focusses on advisory arbitration in the public interest as provided for in section 150 and 150A-D of the 1995 LRA. It considers the extent to which the collective bargaining model under the 1995 LRA – as a product of criticism of the 1956 model – continues to be grounded on the legislative policy consideration of voluntarism when viewed against the extent to which the legislature by way of reactive amendments to the 1995 LRA over the three decades since its enactment has once again increased the scope provided for third-party intervention and third-party discretion in collective bargaining.
Downloads
References
Bibliography
Literature
Anstey M "Marikana – And the Push for a New South African Pact" 2013 South African Journal of Labour Relations 137-145
Basson AA "Die Verpligting om te Goeder Trou te Onderhandel" 1992 Stell LR 32-58
Bendix S Industrial Relations in South Africa 4th ed (Juta Lansdowne 2001)
Botha MM and Germishuys W "The Promotion of Orderly Collective Bargaining and Effective Dispute Resolution, the Dynamic Labour Market and the Powers of the Labour Court (1)" 2017 THRHR 351-369
Brand J "Organisational rRights and Trade Union Rivalry in South Africa" 2014 The Dispute Resolution Digest 55
Brassey MSM et al The New Labour Law: Strikes, Dismissals and the Unfair Labour Practice in South African Law (Juta Cape Town 1987)
Cameron E, Cheadle H and Thompson C The New Labour Relations Act: The Law after the 1988 Amendments (Juta Cape Town 1989)
Cheadle H et al (eds) Strikes and the Law (LexisNexis Durban 2017)
Coetzer N "The Road Less Travelled: Unlocking the Potential of Advisory Arbitration Awards" 2014 ILJ 880-897
L Corazza and Fergus E "Representativeness and the Legitimacy of Bargaining Agents" in Hepple BA et al (eds) Laws against Strikes: The South African Experience in an International and Comparative Perspective (Juta Cape Town 2015) 87-108
Cosatu, Nactu and Fedsal "Proposals on the Draft Labour Relations Bill" (1 May 1995) (unpublished, on file with the author)
D'Art D "Freedom of Association and Statutory Recognition: A Constitutional Impossibility?" 2020 Irish Jurist 82-112
Davies P and Freedland M Kahn-Freund's Labour and the Law 3rd ed (Stevens London 1983)
Davis DM "Voluntarism and South African Labour Law – Are the Queensbury Rules an Anachronism?" 1990 Acta Juridica 45-72
Davis D and Le Roux M "Changing the Role of the Corporation: A Journey Away from Adversarialism" 2012 Acta Juridica 306-325
Du Toit D "Corporatism and Collective Bargaining in a Democratic South Africa" 1995 ILJ 785-805
Du Toit D et al The Labour Relations Act 2nd ed (Butterworths Durban 1998)
Du Toit D et al Labour Relations Law: A Comprehensive Guide 6th ed (LexisNexis Durban 2015)
Dukes R "The Statutory Recognition Procedure 1999: No Bias in Favour of Recognition" 2008 ILJ 236-267
Dukes R "Otto Kahn-Freund and Collective Laissez-Faire: An Edifice without a Keystone" 2009 MLR 220-246
Fergus E "Reflections on the (Dys)functionality of Strikes to Collective Bargaining: Recent Developments" 2016 ILJ 1537-1551
Friedman "We have Met the Enemy and He is Us: COSATU's War against Itself in 2013" 2014 Dispute Resolution Digest 50-53
Germishuys-Burchell W The Legal Regulation of Trade Union Recognition in South Africa in Historical and Comparative Context (LLD-thesis Stellenbosch University 2023)
International Labour Office Digest of Decisions and Principles of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO 3rd ed (ILO Geneva 1985)
International Labour Office Prelude to Change: Industrial Relations Reform in South Africa (Report of the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association Concerning the Republic of South Africa (ILO Geneva 1992)
Kahn-Freund O "Labour Law" in Ginsberg M (ed) Law and Opinion in England in the 20th Century (University of California Press Berkeley 1959) 125-263
Kahn-Freund O Selected Writings (Stevens London 1978)
Kruger J and Tshoose CI "The Impact of the Labour Relations Act on Minority Trade Unions: A South African Perspective" 2013 PELJ 248-326
Le Roux PAK "The Labour Law Amendment Bills: Changes to the LRA, BCEA and a New Minimum Wage Bill" 2017 CLL 27-38
Le Roux P "Organisational Rights: An Update: Minority Unions and Threshold Agreements" 2018 CLL 67-79
Manamela E and Budeli M "Employees' Right to Strike and Violence in South Africa" 2013 CILSA 308-336
Mboweni T "A New Era for Labour Relations" Speech at the Launch of the Labour Relations Bill (2 February 1995 Johannesburg)
Mischke C "The Draft Labour Relations Bill" 1995 JBL 58-61
Myburgh A "The Failure to Obey Interdicts Prohibiting Strikes and Violence: The Implications for Labour Law and the Rule of Law" 2013 CLL 1-10
Myburgh A "Interdicting Protected Strikes on Account of Violence" 2018 ILJ 703-724
Ngcukaitobi T "Strike Law, Structural Violence and Inequality in the Platinum Hills of Marikana" 2013 ILJ 836-858
Rycroft A "The Duty to Bargain in Good Faith" 1988 ILJ 202-220
Rycroft A "Can a Protected Strike Lose Its Status?" 2012 ILJ 821-827
Rycroft A "What Can be Done about Strike-Related Violence?" 2014 IJCLLIR 199-216
Rycroft AJ and Jordaan B A Guide to South African Labour Law 2nd ed (Juta Cape Town 1993)
Saley S and Benjamin P "The Context of the ILO Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission Report on South Africa" 1992 ILJ 731-739
Simpson B "Trade Union Recognition and the Law, a New Approach – Parts I and II of Schedule A1 to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992" 2000 ILJ 193-222
Tenza M "An Investigation into the Causes of Violent Strikes in South Africa: Some Lessons from Foreign Law and Possible Solutions" 2015 LDD 211-231
Theron J, Godfrey S and Fergus E "Organisational and Collective Bargaining Rights through the Lens of Marikana" 2015 ILJ 849-869
Thompson C "On Bargaining and Legal Intervention" 1987 ILJ 1-14
Van Eck S and Newaj K "The Constitutional Court on the Rights of Minority Trade Unions in a Majoritarian Collective Bargaining System" 2020 CCR 331-352
Wedderburn of Charlton KWW, Lewis JR and Clark J Labour Law and Industrial Relations: Building on Kahn-Freund (Oxford Clarendon 1983)
Case law
Black Allied Workers Union v Umgeni Iron Works 1990 11 ILJ 589 (IC)
Bleazard v Argus Printing & Publishing Co Ltd 1983 4 ILJ 60 (IC)
Buthelezi v Labour for Africa 1989 10 ILJ 867 (IC)
Corobrik Natal (Pty) Limited and Construction and Allied Workers' Union 1991 12 ILJ 1140 (Arb)
Dairybelle (Pty) Limited v Lupondwana 2001 7 BLLR 741 (LC)
Food & Allied Workers Union v Spekenham Supreme (2) 1988 9 ILJ 628 (IC)
Metal & Allied Workers Union v Natal Die Casting Co (Pty) Ltd 1986 7 ILJ 520 (IC)
Metal & Allied Workers Union v Stobar Reinforcing (Pty) Ltd 1983 4 ILJ 84 (IC)
MWASA v Argus Printing & Publishing Co 1984 5 ILJ 16 (IC)
National Automobile & Allied Workers Union v Pretoria Precision Castings (Pty) Ltd 1985 6 ILJ 369 (IC)
National Union of Food Beverage Wine Spirits & Allied Workers v Universal Product Network (Pty) Ltd; and In re Universal Product Network (Pty) Ltd v National Union of Food Beverage Wine Spirits & Allied Workers 2016 37 ILJ 476 (LC)
National Union of Mineworkers v Marievale Consolidated Mines Ltd 1986 7 ILJ 123 (IC)
Paper Wood & Allied Workers Union v Summit Associated Industries 1987 8 ILJ 691 (IC)
SA Clothing & Textile Workers Union v Maroc Carpets & Textile Mills (Pty) Ltd 1990 11 ILJ 1101 (IC)
SA Commercial Catering & Allied Workers Union v Southern Sun Corporation (Pty) Ltd 1991 12 ILJ 835 (IC)
SA Electrical Workers' Association v Goedehoop Colliery (Amcoal) 1991 12 ILJ 856 (IC)
SA Post Office Ltd v Communication Workers Union 2010 31 ILJ 997 (LC)
SA Woodworkers Union v Rutherford Joinery (Pty) Ltd 1990 11 ILJ 695 (IC)
Sentraal-Wes (Koöperatief Bpk) v Food & Allied Workers Union 1990 ILJ 977 (LAC)
Shezi v Consolidated Framed Cotton Corporation Ltd 1 1984 5 ILJ 3 (IC)
Trident Steel (Pty) Ltd v John 1987 8 ILJ 27 (W)
United African Motor Allied Workers Union v Fodens (SA) (Pty) Ltd 1983 4 ILJ 212 (IC)
Legislation
Industrial Conciliation Act 28 of 1956
Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956
Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995
Labour Relations Amendment Act 83 of 1988
Labour Relations Amendment Act 12 of 2002
Labour Relations Amendment Act 6 of 2014
Labour Relations Amendment Act 8 of 2018
Government publications
GN 97 in GG 16259 of 10 February 1995 (Explanatory Memorandum to the Draft Negotiating Document in the Form of a Labour Relations Bill)
GN R1396 in GG 42121 of 19 December 2018 (Code of Good Practice: Collective Bargaining, Industrial Action and Picketing with Annexure A: Good Faith Declaration and Annexure 2: Accord on Collective Bargaining and Industrial Action)
Labour Relations Amendment Bill [B32B-2017]
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Wilhelmina Germishuys-Burchell
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
.png){kind=spacer}