- Title
- The effect of the amendments to the labour relations act on collective labour law and proliferation of the unions
- Creator
- Galorale, Mompati Jonas
- Subject
- Collective labor agreements -- South Africa
- Subject
- Labor unions -- Law and legislation -- South Africa Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- LLM
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/30216
- Identifier
- vital:30901
- Description
- The Constitution guarantees freedom of association, the right of employees to form and join trade unions and to strike, and the rights of trade unions, employers and employers’ associations to bargaining collectively. Section 23 of the Constitution is even-handed: it confers on “everyone” (including employers) a right to fair labour practices and leaving aside the right to strike, confers identical rights on trade unions and employers’ organisations. It is also important to note that the Constitution seeks to advance principles of equality and human dignity before the law. Section 1 of the Labour Relations Act 65 of 1995 (the LRA) provides that the purpose of the LRA is to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and democratization of the workplace. When interpreting and applying the LRA and the amendments one must give effect to the primary objects of the LRA in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution) and in compliance with ratified Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (the ILO). In terms of section 45 of the Labour Relations Amendment Act 6 of 2014 (the LRAA), the President of the Republic of South Africa declared 1 January 2015 as the effective date for the amendments. Employers had from the 1 January 2015 to comply with the LRAA. The amendments impact on all employees, employers and registered trade unions. The amendments responded to, amongst other things, the increased formalisation of labour and also seeks to ensure that vulnerable groups of employees receive adequate protection. The main purpose for the amendments to section 21 of the LRA is to provide for the organisation of employees engaged by a temporary employment service (TES), to broaden the discretion of commissioners under which organisational rights may be granted, to grant majority rights to most representative unions and to allow a commissioner to grant organisational rights despite a threshold agreement. Collective labour law is also materially effected by these amendments, which are aimed at promoting the inclusion of non-standard employees in the collective bargaining framework and expanding the application of organisational rights. The collective-labour law amendments are the focus of this treatise. This will expand the employee pool in a workplace for purposes of securing organisational rights. The amendments have the effect of creating a more inclusive collective bargaining environment in the workplace. It is hoped that this will lessen the need felt by smaller unions to use industrial action as the only route to secure organisational rights previously intended for more representative unions only. The LRAA made it much easier for unions to obtain organisational rights to sufficiently represented unions who do not have majority representation. A commisioner may in terms section 22 of the amendments extend a collective agreement between a TES and its employees and this agreement may be enforced on the client and vice versa. Trade unions representing the employees of a TES will be in a position to exercise their organisational rights not only at the workplace of the TES, but also at the client’s workplace, despite the employees not being employees of the client. In furtherance of these objectives the LRA1 provides a regulatory framework for collective bargaining and organisational rights – in keeping with international and constitutional obligations. Trade unions are the vehicles for effective collective bargaining, while the LRA unequivocally promotes the policy choice of majoritarianism. The LRA was formulated around the furthering of section 23(5) of the Constitution. What is of significance therefore, is to regulate the framework for collective bargaining, of which the amendments prioritized the provision of legislated organisational rights. In keeping with the constitutional objectives mentioned above, section 21(8)(a)(i) of the LRA directs commissioners, in resolving recognition disputes, to: “seek to minimise the proliferation of trade union representation in a single workplace, and where possible, to encourage a system of a representative trade union in a workplace.”
- Format
- 89 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Law
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Hits: 1491
- Visitors: 1576
- Downloads: 218
Collections
NMU Department of Mercantile Law
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MOMPATI JONAS GALORALE.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |