On Saturday, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) will celebrate a decade of what it calls improved relations with South African workers and employers.
Nerine Kahn, director of the CCMA, calls the organisation a ”worldwide model of success” in terms of what has been achieved since its initial inception.
”On average, we have a 70% success rate in terms of settlement dispute … prior to 1996 the industrial conciliation boards [in place before the CCMA] only had a 17% success rate,” Kahn told the Mail & Guardian Online this week.
She said the CCMA’s dramatic rate of improvement is greatly due to the passion and optimism of the organisation’s employees. ”They are the most dedicated and committed people I have worked with.”
The CCMA is an independent, neutral body. But being a Chapter 3 organisation, it is also a public entity, funded by the National Treasury. The organisation’s board is a tripartite structure, consisting of representatives from business, the government and labour.
Set up after the Labour Relations Act was passed in 1996, the CCMA was one of the first major organisations established under a democratic South Africa. Its aim to promote social justice and equality in the workplace is still a guiding principle.
”It is very important that that vision remains,” Kahn said.
Through the CCMA, the culture of working practice has improved in big industries, Kahn feels. Still, she maintains more needs to be done to improve conditions of those in ”vulnerable sectors” such as cleaners, security guards and other contract workers.
Kahn said the CCMA has been particularly successful in three key areas: its 70% settlement rate, the speed at which disputes are resolved, and the fact that there has been relative industrial peace since the organisation took charge. ”These are huge achievements.”
In terms of the organisation’s failures, Kahn said although there are many challenges, she does not believe it has failed at anything, but rather improved on the situation that existed before.
There is ”collective amnesia” about workplace relations in the years prior to the CCMA, she said. ”[But] everyone can improve.”
She said there are many criticisms of the organisation and its administrative problems, as well as debates about it being too procedural; these are problems it is sorting through.
Kahn also said a review of the way the CCMA operates is under way.
”There should be a change in mediation style, a change in the technique. People should see the CCMA differently; it should be seen to build workplace relations, not just when there is a dispute,” she said.
”The labour market is still too adversarial; there are still too many disputes and strikes,” Kahn said, especially in the vulnerable sectors.
However, she added that the public perception of there being a tendency to strike first is a false one. ”The strikes that take place follow quite a strict procedure … there are almost no illegal strikes.”
Kahn said problems exist with the organisation being underfunded, something it has been very quiet about. She said that in spite of the CCMA being under-resourced, she is proud it is ”widely known and has become a household name in 10 years”.
”To make money, people become employers and employees; they are all affected by the labour laws of this country,” Kahn said.
The CCMA has ”touched the lives of every South African in one way or another”, she said in a statement.
But ”people know what the CCMA is, but not what it does”, Kahn added, talking about the need for this month’s anniversary media campaign to raise public awareness about the organisation.
”In an ideal world the CCMA would not need to exist,” she said. But, until then, the organisation should be ”looked at holistically” for the improvements it has made.
The CCMA’s 10th anniversary will be celebrated on November 27, at a gala dinner in Johannesburg, where guests will be addressed by the Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana.