By Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: ivan@labourlawadvice.co.za. Go to: www.labourlawvideos.co.za
The loss of production and of customers is usually the first consequence of a strike, and this is often the intention of the strikers. In order to avoid such losses employers need to understand:
- The difference between a lawful and unlawful strike
- The economic effects of a strike for both parties
- The effects of a strike on the employment relationship
- How to resolve constructively the conflict that causes industrial action
- The pros and cons of using litigation to deal with damage caused by a strike.
Before the conflict gets to the stage of impasse that results in a strike the parties need to utilise the services of an expert in conflict resolution. The CCMA was set up with the purpose of helping the parties to resolve conflict peacefully. However, in practice, the warring parties too often go to the CCMA because the law says they must rather than in a sincere attempt to sort out their differences. In other words, by the time the parties end up at the CCMA the conflict is often beyond the point of no return.
For this reason, during times of industrial peace, employers and employees should identify and agree upon the use of a trained and reputable conflict resolution expert to be called in when the parties are unable to solve the problem themselves. The expert should also be able to help the parties rebuild their relationship once a strike is over.
Even more importantly, it is time that civil society unites to get business and labour to end their destructive economic war. They need to drop their outdated and unviable ideologies of capitalism and socialism and replace them with Shareism whereby owners and workers create profits together and share these profits fairly. Then the need for strikes and the economic losses they cause for both parties will become unnecessary.
In the case of South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union vs Massmart (Lex Info 25 March 2026. Constitutional Court Case number CCT 145/24) the Labour Court and later the Labour Appeal Court found that the employer had the right to refer to the Labour Court a suit for damages caused by strikers. The relief granted by these courts prompted the union to lodge an appeal to the Constitutional Court. In a split decision the Court found in favour of the union on the basis that the Labour Court had exceeded its powers in granting the employer relief. The majority found that the LRA only confers jurisdiction to the Labour Court to adjudicate disputes related to compensation for strike losses if the strike itself is unlawful but not merely if the conduct of the strikers was unlawful.
The employer had lost millions of rand due to the strike and then had to suffer the major additional costs of going to the Labour Court, the Labour Appeal Court and then the Constitutional Court. The costly confrontational nature of the strike dispute as well as the legal costs of extended litigation in this and many other cases flags the need for the parties to seek a more constructive way of dealing with each other. To this end there is a great need for employers to ensure that their managers are properly trained in how to engage constructively with their employees so as to reduce the need for industrial action.
The innovative video series WALKING THE LABOUR LAW TIGHTROPE assists employers to provide their managers with very inexpensive training that allows the managers to achieve crucial labour relations knowhow at times suitable to their very busy schedules. Its 48 chapters, averaging 10 minutes in length each, can easily be watched at junctures when the manager has time. This greatly informative yet very engaging and practical video series provides crucial and user-friendly learning through the use of a stimulating, animated case study that runs throughout the 48-chapter series. Each chapter contains clear and important advice needed by workplace management on the basics of labour law over a very wide range of topics.
A further advantage is that the manager can, for a full year, easily go back to any of the 48 videos for purposes of refresher training or in order to access information on how to deal with a current workplace issue. This solves the problem of managers forgetting what they have learned.
This video series helps management to walk the shaky labour law tightrope and to run the workplace productively without falling into the labour law abyss.
To access our groundbreaking video series: WALKING THE NEW LABOUR LAW TIGHTROPE please go to www.labourlawvideos.co.za or contact Ivan on ivan@labourlawadvice.co.za
