Strikes in the transport sector
- Authors: Grigor, Marius Hugo
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Strikes and lockouts -- South Africa , Arbitration, Industrial , Right to strike
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , LLM
- Identifier: vital:10300 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021100
- Description: Strike action by employees is globally used in matters of mutual interest in order to place pressure on employers to meet their demands although the right to strike is not contained in any of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) conventions or recommendations. Two conventions of the ILO are however relevant in the context of strikes and lockouts.1 The first is the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention 87 of 1948 and the second convention of importance is the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention 98 of 1949, both of which was ratified by South Africa and accordingly binds South Africa to comply with their provisions. The ILO appointed legal experts to assist the drafters of the Labour Relations Act,2 (LRA) in order to comply with these conventions. Furthermore section 3 of the LRA provides that the LRA must be interpreted in compliance with the international law obligations of South Africa. Section 27 of the Interim Constitution3 made provision for both the right to strike and the right of employers to lockout. In the proposed text of the final Constitution the recourse of the employer to lockout was not included. The text of the final Constitution was submitted to the Constitutional Court (CC) for certification in that it had to decide whether the new text of the final Constitution complied with the constitutional principles agreed to by the different political parties as the inviolable framework for the final Constitution. The CC delivered its judgment in Ex parte Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly: In re Certification of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa4 and concluded that the omission of a right to lockout from the final Constitution does not conflict with constitutional principles. The CC did not agree with the argument, raised by Business South Africa, based on the proposition that the right of employers to lockout is the necessary equivalent to the right of workers to strike and that therefore, in order to treat workers and employers equally, both should be recognized in the new text. The result of this judgment is that employees’ right to strike is expressly protected by section 23 of the Constitution whilst the right of employers to lockout their employees is not expressly entrenched. The employers’ right is however protected by implication through the express protection of the right to bargain collectively in terms of section 23(5) of the Constitution and section 64 of the LRA.
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- Date Issued: 2013
The right to strike: 10th anniversary of Armourplate strike, 6th September 1976
- Authors: Chemical Workers Industrial Union
- Date: 1976-09-06
- Subjects: Right to strike , Strikes and lockouts
- Language: English
- Type: text , pamphlet
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111269 , vital:33426
- Description: In South Africa and throughout the world the working class is struggling to win the full right to strike. This booklet is published to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a landmark in this struggle under Apartheid. Ten years ago, on 6th September 1976, members of the Glass and Allied Workers Union at Armourplate went out on strike. The first legal strike by black workers. Although their brave struggle was not successful then, many lessons were learnt that have allowed victories to follow. Such lessons were put into practice in the Dunlop strike and the sit-ins covered in this booklet. The legal position of strikes is confusing and part of this booklet tries to clear this up. The present legal rights can be compared with our demands in the COSATU resolution.
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- Date Issued: 1976-09-06