‘Was it fantastic to walk into it as a new director? Absolutely not,” says Nerine Kahn, the new director of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). Since taking on the position — which is viewed as the poisoned chalice of labour relations — at the beginning March, she has had to face irate clients, commissioners and administration staff who are furious over the condition of the new building into which the Johannesburg branch has moved.
In her first week she had to deal with a formal complaint laid with the Department of Labour by the CCMA Staff Association. The complaint was over dissatisfaction with working conditions in the new building, which has no air-conditioning and has seen a dramatic reduction of office space from six floors and 48 hearing rooms to three floors and 24 rooms.
Bitterness around working conditions and management’s perceived disregard for staff welfare was so intense that the operations manager’s car tyres were slashed in the car park — an ironic situation for an organisation tasked with ensuring labour peace and justice.
“We’re conducting a formal investigation,” says Kahn about the move, “It’s been very bad for the organisation’s reputation.”
She admits to being “embarrassed”, and that the move had been “chaotic”. She seems anxious but still puts on a brave face.
She says the reduction in hearing rooms was part of an effort to move the Gauteng caseload from Johannesburg to the new Pretoria regional office.
While the building may be new, the people are familiar: having risen through the ranks, Kahn is clearly well-liked and respected in the organisation.
“I’m passionate about labour relations, I’ve worked in the area for the past 16 years,” she explains. Kahn practiced as an attorney for six years, was a senior commissioner at the CCMA and then worked as chief director for labour relations at the Department of Labour as well as serving as compensation commissioner for the Compensation Fund.
On the future of the CCMA and continued rumblings from business and sections of government about the need for labour legislation reform, Kahn is firm: “I think that the legislation is as appropriate now as it was 10 years ago … The CCMA has substantially filled its mandate, people forget that.” She says that in the interests of social justice, people have the right to be heard, and put their cases forward.
“Unionists have fought for those rights and for the CCMA. I don’t see it as an economic growth impediment, it’s fundamental.”
She dismisses allegations that workers use the CCMA to harass their employers: “Last year we did a client satisfaction survey and we actually got very little [negative response]. That anecdotal five to 10% [who believe the CCMA is biased] is very small but it gets blown up … On average, we’ve got very satisfied people, very satisfied employers.”
She says the CCMA has “had a huge impact” in reducing the numbers of working days lost to strikes in the past 10 years.
Negative perceptions about the organisation are based on misunderstandings of how the CCMA differs from a court, where often the party with the loudest lawyer wins. “Remember, our principle here is based on fairness — not what clever legal points you can bring to get out of the court case. It’s more around how to solve a dispute so that everyone goes away feeling the issue has been dealt with.”
In the immediate future she plans to concentrate on operational issues, but her long-term goal is to work more strategically, particularly in refocusing on dispute management. “Can workplace disputes be solved in the workplace?” she asks. “The CCMA is doing unbelievable work in this region and I want to enhance that.”
Kahn also wants to raise the profile of the CCMA and educate the public about its role. “I really think that the CCMA gets a bad rap sometimes,” she says, pauses and then quickly adds, “… some of it’s justified, don’t get me wrong.”