On occasion an employee joins a trade union which operates outside of the industry in which their employer operates. The Constitutional Court held that such a trade union does not have the power to represent the employee in CCMA and Labour Court proceedings if the registered scope of the trade union precludes the employee from
Labour Relations Act
No wrongfulness by Education Department for omission as employer to prevent victimisation

In June 2023 the Supreme Court of Appeal held, on a number of grounds, that no wrongfulness had been established by a teacher who took early retirement allegedly because she had been victimised, suffered clinical depression and consequently retired early. The plaintiff had failed at the time of the alleged victimisation to pursue the grievance…
Absence of picketing rules does not affect the lawfulness of a strike

This blog was co-authored by: Mduduzi Sibiya, Candidate Attorney
The 2019 amendments to section 69 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 provide that no picket in support of a protected strike or in opposition to a lockout may take place in the absence of picketing rules. The picketing rules may be agreed to or determined…
Use of background material when interpreting statutes

When the Constitutional Court had cause to interpret a section of the Labour Relations Act regarding the requirements for a secondary strike, the court had recourse to what it called the ‘main secondary source’ namely the Parliament’s Explanatory Memorandum on the Labour Relations Bill in order to gather the intention of the legislature.
A secondary…