South Africa’s employment law has undergone more frequent and dynamic changes than any area of the law, in recent years. The ability of employers and employees to regulate their respective rights and duties vis-à-vis each other by independent agreement has been progressively whittled down by statutory intervention. In so limiting the capacity of parties to the employment relationship to regulate the nature of their relationship, South Africa has followed development in Western industrialised nations. Against this background, the drafters of the Labour Relations Act1 (LRA), as amended, proposed a comprehensive framework of law governing the collective relations between employers and trade unions in all sectors of the economy. The LRA2 created a specialised set of forums and tribunals to deal with labour and employment related matters. It established Bargaining Councils, the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the Labour Court (LC) and the Labour Appeal Court (LAC). It also created procedures designed to accomplish the objective of simple, inexpensive and accessible resolution of labour disputes. In redesigning labour law, the legislature decided that some disputes between employers and employees should be dealt with by arbitrators and others by judges. It is this distinction that resulted in the creation of the CCMA and the Labour Court to perform arbitration and adjudication respectively. The result of adjudication is generally subject to appeal to a higher court. The result of arbitration is generally subject to review. Arbitration was given statutory recognition in South Africa by the Arbitration Act3. That Act provides a framework within which parties in dispute may if they wish appoint their own “judge” and supply him or her with their terms of reference tailored to their needs. With the foregoing in mind, the purpose of this work is the provision of a selection of landmark cases that dealt with the review function of CCMA awards. This selection 1 Act 66 of 1995 as amended comprises of landmark judgments of the different courts of the land. The study uses, as it departure point, legislative framework to elicit the extent to which review is extended to the litigants. Apart from looking at the legislative provisions towards review grounds, reference is made to specific landmark judgments that have an effect on this subject in order to provide a comprehensive and explicit picture of how CCMA arbitration awards may be taken on review. This study focuses on substantive law developed by the Labour Court, High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and finally the Constitutional Court. This is informed by the very nature and scope of the study because any concentration on procedural and evidentiary aspects of review could lead to failure to achieve the objectives of the study. It looks at specific South African case law, judgments of the courts and the jurisprudence in the field of employment law so that the reader is presented with a clearer picture of recent developments in addressing review of arbitration awards. The concluding remarks are drawn from a variety of approaches used by the authorities in the field of employment law in dealing with review of CCMA arbitration awards and issues for further research are highlighted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10219 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Phanyane, Namadzavho California |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Law |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, LLM |
| Format | iv, 62 leaves ; 31 cm, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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