JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Chamber of Mines senior executive for employment relations Dr Elize Strydom on Wednesday highlighted five key issues facing the mining industry with regard to labour relations, including the principle of majoritarianism.
Speaking as part of a panel at the Mining Lekgotla, she stated that the majoritarianism, or “winner takes all”, principle, which was included in the Labour Relations Act (LRA) had led to much inter-union rivalry.
“Through this principle the majority union in the workplace would have access and bargaining rights while another union, that might have 40% representation, would not,” she explained.
Meanwhile, also speaking as part of the panel discussion, Solidarity deputy general secretary Gideon du Plessis pointed out that, with the signing of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s framework for a sustainable mining industry, all parties, including the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), had agreed that the majoritarianism principle should be abolished.
“Government, business and all the unions agreed on this matter and this is why we believe platinum miner Lonmin, through recognising AMCU as its majority union and giving it sole bargaining recognition, is a major setback for the framework agreement, as well as a major setback for peace and stability,” he said.
Du Plessis added that, as a result of Lonmin’s actions, the credibility of the framework agreement would now be challenged.
Meanwhile, Strydom pointed out that Section 18 of the LRA that dealt with the majoritarianism principle had been amended through the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly last week.
“In essence, the amendment states that, when you have another union, aside from the majority union, that would like to have access to the workplace, this union could go to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the issue would go into arbitration.
“If that applicant union could then indicate that it represents a significant interest in that workplace, or if it has a substantial number of employees as members, the arbitrator can then afford that union access,” Strydom said.
Meanwhile, other issues facing the mining labour relations sector included contractors providing their employees with benefits that were less favourable than those of the mine’s permanent employees, which often led to conflict and dissatisfaction.
Employee indebtedness was another serious issue that companies had to acknowledge.
The need for pre-strike ballots still had to be considered.
Strydom stated that while Parliament scrapped the provision relating to pre-strike ballots, business felt strongly that it could benefit industry and serve as a signal to the world that South Africa was serious about labour relations.
The issue of central bargaining in the platinum sector also had to be addressed, she said.
“Post-Marikana, many companies were in favour of centralised bargaining. While we have not been able to put this in place this year, negotiations from next year onwards will again look at the possibility of centralised bargaining,” she said.
However, with regard to centralised bargaining, Du Plessis said the situation could not be forced.
“We need to see how the current negotiations play out before deciding whether there should be a bargaining council, because we cannot force the situation. We have seen this previously when we tried to set up the collective bargaining forum in the platinum industry and it was not successful,” he said.