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The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has had to deal with a record number of cases in the past year, driven largely by a volatile economy.
The commission had an overwhelming 193 732 cases referred to it in the 2018/19 financial year compared with 186 902 the year before, making it the largest labour dispute resolution agency in the world by volume of referrals.
Briefing the media earlier this week about the commission’s annual performance, CCMA director Cameron Sello Morajane said: “Of the total cases, about 71% were related to unfair dismissals, followed by 11% on unfair labour practices.
“The highest referring sector in the reporting period was business professional services at 27%, followed by the security sector at 12% and retail sector at 11% of total cases dealt with.
“As at March 31, the CCMA had received 4 287 Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) and National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA) referrals, three post-enactment. This constitutes 8% of the total referrals received during this three-month period,” he said.
The caseload, Morajane said, was projected to increase by 25% in the current financial year because more beneficiaries are becoming aware of the new pieces of legislations, especially the NMWA and the BCEA.
Morajane said the commission managed to ensure 88 of all reconcilable cases were heard within the statutory time frame of 30 days, with the CCMA taking about 24 days to complete the entire conciliation process.
He said the commission dealt with 5 160 mutual interest disputes, a 10% increase compared with the previous financial year and dealt with 187 public interest matters, of which it managed to resolve 160 cases.
“These figures suggest a high level of labour market trust and reliance on the CCMA to facilitate collective bargaining disputes,” Morajane said.
He said that through the commission’s dispute management and prevention outreach services, almost 70 000 people were taught to better understand the law and their rights.
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