Section 23 of the Constitution is an embodiment of fundamental labour rights. Section
23(1) reads as follows:
â(1) Everyone has the right to fair labour practices.â
The fair labour practice concept is a rather recent development in South African labour
law and is it therefore still required to attempt to provide meaning to this concept. It
further becomes essential to provide meaning to the concept if it is acknowledged that
when this concept was introduced in 1979, the unfairness of the concept was regulated
by labour legislation and the Industrial Courtâs equity jurisprudence; currently, not only
the unfairness of this concept is legislatively regulated but is the fairness of this concept
embedded as a constitutional guarantee in the Constitution of South Africa. It has
therefore become necessary to determine the exact scope of this constitutional right in
order to determine the relation between the legislative concept and the constitutional
right and to investigate whether there is any room for an extended view of this right and
to which limitations (if any) it should be subjected to.
Prior to analysing the constitutional right to fair labour practices, a comprehensive
investigation was led into the historical position preceding the introduction of this right. It
was found that the history of fair labour practices played an immensely important role in
the analysis of this constitutional right. The events, motivations and circumstances
which consequently led to the introduction of this right, without any doubt, provided a
useful guideline as to the interpretation of the right. The disregard for the human
element present in the employment relationship, not only while slavery was in existence
but also in the continued policies and mindsets of policy-makers thereafter, could be
described as the first element contributing to the unfairness of labour practices. It was
also found that, although the common law still being relevant, the common law contract
of employment should no longer serve as the yardstick for establishing the existence of
an employment relationship (for purposes of provision of protection and ensuring fair
labour practices). Regards must rather be having to all the circumstances surrounding the relationship between a person rendering services and the person paying for the
services in order to establish the true nature of the relationship. In the end, protection
for either of these parties is not solely dependent on a contract of employment anymore,
but rather on the fact whether an employment relationship was proven or not. Before the
enactment of the Constitution, protection in an employment context was literally limited
to legislation providing protection. It is suggested that legislation should be interpreted
according to the Constitution and common law should be developed in terms of the
Constitution. Based on this premise everyone can currently enjoy the right to fair labour
practices based on section 23(1), even if excluded by legislation or common law and
even in the absence of regulation by legislation or common law.
When analysing the word everyone, it is submitted that our law has moved beyond the
realms of contract to broad constitutionality in determining who is an employee. A claim
to be recognised as an employee in terms of the 1995-LRA is not contractual in nature
but rather a claim to enforce constitutional rights. Although a contract of employment (or
being regarded as an employee) is required to claim labour rights in terms of the 1995-
LRA and other labour laws, section 23(1) of the Constitution provides broader protection
than labour laws where a person is in a work relationship akin to an employment
relationship. Everyone should be determined with reference to âbeing involved in an
employment relationshipâ. The following persons will therefore in general enjoy
protection in terms of this right: natural persons, juristic persons, employers, workers
(including employees employed in a contract of employment and employees in utero),
independent â and dependent contractors, citizens, aliens, children, job applicants,
illegal workers (to a certain extent), temporary workers, casual workers, acting workers,
probationary workers and managerial employees. It is also suggested that the
protection afforded by section 23(1) is not limited to an individual relationship but
extends to collective relationships as well.
Fairness is a concept that has drawn attention not only since the unfairness of labour
practices in South Africa has been realised but since the beginning of time. In
attempting to comprehend the meaning of this concept attention should therefore be divided to the unfairness complained of, the views of ancient philosophers, the
recommendations of the Wiehahn Commission, the previous Industrial Courtâs
perception and decisions on fairness, contemporary views and future predicaments (last
mentioned form an important part of defining this concept due to the fact that much of
the meaning of the concept of fairness is contained in its idealistic nature). Determining
the fairness of a labour practice should not be done according to a value judgment
made by a court as this would lead to much uncertainty. Therefore a statutory definition
of an unfair labour practice must be interpreted and applied in accordance with the
spirit, purport and objects of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. It is
not certain what type of value judgement will ensure fairness and it is also uncertain
how it should be done. Furthermore, the content and standard of such a value judgment
is uncertain. Brasseyâs determination of fairness ensures much more certainty: A labour
practice will only be regarded as fair if it bears both an economic rationale and also
proves to be legitimate. It is suggested that fairness is determined by balancing the
respective interests of parties in any given situation.
If the other factors, i.e. the concept of everyone and the meaning of fairness, influencing
the application of section 23(1), the history of unfair labour practice regulation and the
values of the Constitution are taken into consideration, it seems justified to conclude on
the concept of labour practices in the following fashion: the Constitution envisaged to
prevent and prohibit the repetition of a system that was representative of unfairness in
the employment relationship. Both individual â and collective employment relations have
bearing on the perceived fairness of the employment relationship. All practices
concerned with the employment relationship (before, during and after such a
relationship) should therefore be subject to the scrutiny of the constitutional right to fair
labour practices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07172013-152930 |
| Date | 17 July 2013 |
| Creators | Conradie, Maralize |
| Contributors | Prof JV du Plessis |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07172013-152930/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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