The CCMA uses dialogue based on conciliation and mediation to transform labour relations. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Social justice is integral to South African labour relations and labour dispute resolution. In its preamble, our Constitution calls on us to heal past injustices and establish a society based on social justice and fundamental human rights.
The Labour Relations Act of 1995 (LRA), enacted to give effect to the constitutional right to fair labour practices, is intended to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and the democratisation of the workplace. The LRA was also enacted to give effect to South Africa’s obligations as a member state of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Created in 1919, the ILO is the only tripartite United Nations agency that brings together representatives from governments, employers and workers of 187 member states to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work. For the ILO, universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice.
In giving effect to its primary objectives and purpose, the LRA established the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to advance social justice in the workplace through the efficient resolution of employment disputes. The CCMA is thus pivotal to the constitutional imagination of fair labour practices. It offers employers and employees timely access to justice in their relations with one another, allowing parties effective control and power over the outcomes of their workplace disputes.
The South African labour context is uniquely shaped by a deeply-rooted culture of inequality and forged by the legacies of apartheid and colonialism.
For the majority of South Africans, the injustice of economic, social and political exile has meant a lifetime of hard, self-sacrificing labour. Low wages, long hours, shuffling queues, early mornings and late nights, tracking trains, buses and taxis and aching bodies, all which have a lasting, even detrimental effect on workers. Employers owe a significant debt to their workforce.
Harnessing ubuntu
In its current strategy, Imvuselelo – The Revival 2020/21-2024/25 “I am because you are”, the CCMA aims to harness and revive the spirit of ubuntu in the labour market. This strategic proposition is not only relevant but also true to the constitutional compact inspired by ubuntu. Constitutional court (concourt) rulings continue to be shaped by ubuntu, with calls from the likes of late Justice Yvonne Mokgoro for ubuntu to be consciously and strategically harnessed to create a legitimate system of law for all South Africans.
Rulings by the concourt such as in the 1995 decision of S v Makwanyane (the decision that repealed the death penalty in South Africa), gave us a brand of social justice that is anchored in ubuntu, articulating that it carries in it the ideas of humanness, social justice and fairness. The relationship between ubuntu and social justice holds the potential to unlock a way of doing justice that resonates with South Africans. Thus, harnessing ubuntu in our workplaces promotes social justice. This is something we should keep in mind when we commemorate Workers’ Day on 1 May.
Ubuntu’s emphasis on the equality of all people and their full participation in social and communal life makes it a compelling and instructive ethos for advancing social justice. Ubuntu, commonly expressed through the maxim motho ke motho ka batho (a person is a person through their relations with others), upholds the essence of representation and participation as integral to a democratic society. Participation is fostered through mechanisms such as dialogue, which create horizontal relationships between people, and is usually based on values of love, mutual respect, humility, hope and trust.
As a critical functionary in the democratisation of labour relations, the CCMA is well positioned to disrupt unequal power relations that pervade South African workplaces. This element of participation is already embedded in the CCMA processes. The CCMA can be seen as a dialogical space, grounded in conciliation as a primary way of resolving labour disputes. Conciliation and mediation present many of the elements of dialogue. Because of its participatory approach, the CCMA can transform labour relations.
Framework
As part of its strategy to infuse ubuntu in the labour market through proactive intervention programmes, the CCMA can assist workplaces in developing and implementing strategies to make ubuntu part of their business. To do this, the CCMA ought to develop its own framework of what ubuntu in the labour market looks like and how it can be sustained. A framework on harnessing ubuntu at work would conscientise the South African labour market on what ubuntu means, especially in the workplace, and the role that each stakeholder plays in this regard. This framework would lay out clear, measurable activities and goals that the CCMA hopes to achieve through its strategy.
The CCMA’s strategic integration of social justice and ubuntu is both incisive and authentic. It also aligns with the ILO’s decent work agenda that puts people at the centre of development. According to the ILO, decent work entails dignity, equality, fair income and safe working conditions.
Fair, equitable treatment
By blending social justice and ubuntu, the CCMA has a unique opportunity to transform South Africa’s labour relations in a way that truly embodies the spirit of the LRA. For example, if we apply the maxim motho ke motho ka batho to organisations, it instructs that organisations are what they are because of their employees. Thus, in recognition of their employees’ work, ubuntu and social justice demand organisations to treat workers fairly and equitably and to distribute gains made from their labour in the same manner.
Inequitable distribution of wealth goes against ubuntu and creates unrest among workers and the broader society. The attainment of labour peace depends on redressing this reality. Since the work of human beings generates profit, treating and paying employees fairly preserves the very asset that creates wealth for the organisation. An organisation’s investment in its people is an investment in its overall health.
Grounding justice and labour relations in the ethos of ubuntu is key to creating a labour system that resonates with South Africans. The CCMA can transform labour relations by decisively tapping into the potency of ubuntu to direct workplaces to take seriously their responsibility for social change.
Dr Katlego Letlonkane is a workplace culture and inclusion specialist at Stellenbosch University. This article is based, in part, on her recent doctorate in mercantile law.