Pressure: The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration is under budgetary constraints, the workload has mushroomed and CCMA director Cameron Morajane warns of political parties setting up labour desks. (Alaister Russell/Gallo Images/Sunday Times)
“Political party labour desks” pose a threat to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the cash-strapped labour dispute resolution body has warned.
Last month, Democratic Alliance MP Michael Bagraim asked in a parliamentary question why the CCMA had identified civil society organisations, which include political parties, as a threat in its annual performance plan.
The 2021-22 plan’s Swot (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis notes that civil society organisations may put the CCMA’s independence at risk.
Bagraim, who is the DA’s labour spokesperson, said he suspects the Economic Freedom Fighters is at the centre of the CCMA’s concerns, though the commission has not said as much.
Responding to Bagraim, the minister of employment and labour, Thulas Nxesi, said: “The CCMA has noticed an emerging trend where political parties with established labour desks/advice offices are representing parties in CCMA processes.
“This trend is likely to continue as worker representativity across various workplaces is declining with vulnerable workers seeking or forming new associations to assist them.”
Nxesi said the CCMA is concerned that the participation of civil society organisations in its processes may be viewed as political interference. This poses a risk to the commission’s perceived objectivity and independence, he added.
The CCMA gave a similar answer, adding that there has been a growing trend in various provinces of organised civil society groups, advice offices and workers’ committees representing workers, using the CCMA’s rule 25.
Rule 25 provides that a worker may be represented by a legal practitioner, a fellow employee or a trade union official in an arbitration hearing. But rule 25(6) allows a worker to apply for alternative representation.
CCMA director Cameron Morajane said the commission has received accounts of disruptive behaviour by representatives in or near hearing venues.
“The CCMA needs to be alive and sensitive to the changing dynamics and new role players in the labour market, who are not necessarily highly skilled in labour relations, and be pro-active as to equip them with the required knowledge and skills through training initiatives,” Morajane said.
“This will mitigate the risk of instability in the labour market and ensure that the independence and relevance of the CCMA is maintained.”
Covid-19’s devastating effect on employment, as well as the CCMA’s dwindling capacity to help mitigate this, has meant that civil society organisations have had to pick up the slack.
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The CCMA’s workload has exploded in recent years, the result of it having to deal with national minimum wage disputes and the increase in case referrals that has accompanied the Covid-19 jobs bloodbath. There were 250 more large-scale retrenchment referrals in 2020 than there were the year before.
The commission has also had its budget cut by R600-million over the next three years, which has resulted in it having to reduce its staff, including commissioners, by 47%.
The minister and the CCMA would not specify which organisations they were referring to. But among the many organisations that have the CCMA to task is a fairly new player with a strong political backing: the EFFs’ labour desk.
Bagraim said: “I’m getting a lot of queries and some shocking reports as to how the EFF has interfered in labour disputes.
“And because of that interference, people are feeling incredibly exposed. This is now taking, for instance, a wage increase, and threatening industrial actions through the political party, which is quite scary to say the least.”
Employers have become increasingly anxious about the prospect of the EFF getting involved in labour disputes, Bagraim said. The EFF’s protests against clothing retailer H&M in 2018 and Clicks last year have stoked these concerns, he said.
“For me it’s nerve-racking and I have been practising labour law for 36 years. I’ve never seen this angle to it and it has been coming over the last three years. When I heard about the first complaint I thought it was a flash in the pan — it’s just someone who’s incredibly angry. But it’s becoming more frequent,” Bagraim added.
“So when I saw the CCMA’s performance plan I thought that obviously they are getting those complaints as well. But they don’t go so far as to say who.”
Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi, who heads the EFF’s labour desk, also believes the CCMA is referring to the party.
She said the EFF’s labour desk has been identified as troublemakers by the department of employment and labour, instead of as possible partners in helping it to meet its mandate.
He said the EFF’s labour desk has been identified as troublemakers by the department of employment and labour, instead of as possible partners in helping it to meet its mandate.
The EFF’s labour desk will likely have to become even more active as the effects of the pandemic and the CCMA’s budgetary constraints play out.
“There is a need to champion the labour desk. Remember, we are all volunteers. But it is daily work. Cases are piling up,” she said.
“If the department can also up its game, at least the labour desk won’t have so much work. We, in the political party, are radical and we use that stance. But at the end of the day, we need the department to do its work.”
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