|
How are they doing?THE Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) was created in 1996, replacing the notoriously slow and inaccessible industrial courts, in order to provide a quick, low-cost and non-legalistic service to the South African labour market.
The CCMA's cost to government last year was R208-million, and its operational costs are rising at 10% a year, but it appears that the CCMA offers taxpayers value for money - by providing a free public labour service that is generally perceived as quick, just and accessible.
"The CCMA brings huge stability to our labour market. Without it - in the old industrial courts - it could easily take one-and-a-half years to get cases sorted out. Now it takes three months," said Colin Heads, MD of ER-Africa Employment Relations.
"I know that matters taken to the CCMA are resolved far more expeditiously than before as a result of the dispute resolution process," said Dean Caro, an attorney and labour law specialist.
"Essentially the dispute resolution process starts with a conciliation hearing where the commissioner will see if there is any common ground for a mutually agreed settlement. More than 52% of cases, nationally, referred to the CCMA are settled at conciliation. If no settlement is reached at the conciliation stage the case goes to arbitration where evidence is lead. This is probably the swiftest procedure in litigation known to us in the country," said Caro.
The range of dispute resolution services and information given by the CCMA has changed the face of industrial relations in South Africa over the last 10 years. Disputes are now heard in most major centres and take on average 26 days to reach the stage of a conciliation hearing. Arbitrations are heard within an average of 50 days of referral to the CCMA and awards are given within an average of nine days from the date of the arbitration hearing.
"The CCMA has the most efficient case resolution system in the world. Other countries come to South Africa to learn from them," said Heads.
During the 2005/2006 financial year the CCMA conducted an average of 664 hearings every working day (a 9% increase on the previous year) - of which 49,3% were conciliations and 28,6% were arbitrations. They received an average of 496 referrals per working day of which 15,9% were from retail, 11,4% from business and professional services sector, 10,9% from private security, 9,7% from the domestic labour market, 7,6% from building and construction, 4,4% from agriculture and farming, and 4,4% from food and beverage manufacturers. Gauteng has the highest case load representing 20,5%of all cases, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 16,7% and the Western Cape at 14,3%. The national average is that 60% of awards made by the CCMA are in favour of the employee.
"I've been working in the labour field for 17 years - this includes the days of frustration dealing with the then Department of Manpower," said Yasmeen Motala, secretary of the National Bargaining Council for Sugar. "I say: thank god and hallelujah for the CCMA. They're not working 100% and many complain of inefficiencies, but in hindsight - given where we come from - its an absolute pleasure to deal with them and their turn around on cases is excellent."
"There is one point of weakness in the CCMA. There is a huge panel of commissioners, most of whom are part-time commissioners - and they don't carry the ethos of the CCMA forward. The more junior commissioners have had little exposure to real HR issues or how business works and this results in poor judgments," said Motala.
Another area of concern is the sharp increase in section 143 applications to enforce the arbitration awards.
In 2002 the CCMA introduced a national multilingual call centre (0861 16 16 16) and receives an average of 793 calls per working day of which 48,3% are case queries, 39,2% are labour legislation enquiries. Most calls come from the business and professional services (35,5%) followed by the domestic market (13,3%) and retail (11,7%).
2002 also saw the introduction of a system of conducting conciliations and arbitrations on the same day. Slightly more than 40% of arbitration cases were heard on the same day as the conciliations last year. This will ease some of the frustrations from the business sector who feel that attending the CCMA is a drain on time and resources.
Aruna Ware, ACCPAC regional manager for KwaZulu-Natal and Africa, feels that CCMA was not decisive enough in dealing with a case of wrongful dismissal of an employee who had been with the company for four months. They are now waiting for a date for an arbitration hearing. "I understand that the CCMA have a job to do and that employees need to be treated fairly," said Ware. "But at the same time, I believe that they should have strong decisive people chairing these meetings, for the benefit of both parties, so as to avoiding unnecessary time loss. I honestly cannot see what can possibly be achieved at the arbitration that could not have been resolved at the conciliation hearing."
Andrew Quinlan, member of Gastrek Sales and Services CC who has been to the CCMA on numerous occasions said, "Although it is a huge drain of resources and one can expect to spend at least half a day at the hearing, it is the best resolution mechanism that is fair to all parties that I can think of. In fact I wish they would expand to concept to other business conflicts, as the legal system seems to be bogged down and unable to cope with the demand."
Apart from providing information and dispute resolution services the CCMA runs an outreach programme for users on how best to use the CCMA and the law. It is also active in training and accrediting bargaining councils and is active as a mediator in industrial action.
|
|
Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 December 2006 )
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Who's Online |
|
We have 20 guests online |
|
|
|
|
