“The ongoing dispute flies in the face of the assurance given by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address last Thursday that ‘a framework to stabilise the labour market by reducing the length of strikes and eliminating violence during strike action is being finalised’. Strike ballots are seen as one way of addressing these issues because they test worker support for stoppages and prevent strikes going ahead with the endorsement of only the trade union leadership and a small minority of members. Business is strongly in favour of strike ballots, which it believes should be part of a package of amendments to render the labour market more flexible and attractive to investors.
Protracted strikes, especially in the platinum and metals and engineering industries, in 2014 led to renewed calls for changes to labour legislation, with strike balloting emerging among the proposals on the table. A provision for secret strike ballots to be compulsory if a strike were to be legal was removed from the Labour Relations Amendment Bill after fierce resistance by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) during parliamentary hearings more than a year ago”.
Linda Ensor: State and unions clash on ballots first published today on BDlive and Business Day.