/ 4 February 2000

Labour laws to be probed

Barry Streek

Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana is to announce details of a major investigation into South Africa’s labour laws after President Thabo Mbeki’s opening speech to Parliament on Friday.

The inquiry, to be conducted by legal experts, is unlikely to entail significant changes to the labour legislation adopted by Parliament since 1994. Its main aim will be to rejig the laws to enforce worker rights – particularly in cases where companies are liquidated or sold.

The investigation will also seek to tackle delays in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) process, the number of cases referred to it, the time wasted on frivolous cases referred to it, and the possibility of priority lists within the organisation.

The CCMA, which receives around 350 new cases a day, is the lynchpin of the Labour Relations Act, being the first port of call for all labour disputes.

The government’s investigation will also examine provisions in the law for overtime and work on Sundays, as well as legislation regarding dismissal during probationary periods, unfair dismissal, and compensation for unfair dismissal and retrenchments.

But the key issue that will be investigated is the position of employees, including management, when companies are liquidated or sold.

At present, workers and management lose all security and claims to salaries when companies are liquidated, and merely have a right to claims for unpaid salaries along with all other creditors.

This lack of security for workers has been raised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and it is understood that the government sympathises with Cosatu’s concerns.

The Insolvency Act and Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, which deals with the transfer of employees when the ownership of a company changes, are to be investigated to give workers greater protection.

The government’s investigation follows the drawing up of a report for Mbeki on the labour legislation.

This report has not been released publicly, but, in the meantime, the department had called for tenders from lawyers, which closed at the end of January, to draft amendments to the laws.