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The issue of labour representation is central to the problems in the industry. The protracted strike by 70 000 mineworkers was the platinum elephant in the room at the 2014 Mining Indaba in Cape Town this week.
The volatile labour environment has become a major concern for companies and investors alike. Industry experts argued that, unless there is a major shift in industrial relations and the legacy of socioeconomic deprivation faced by mineworkers is meaningfully dealt with, South Africa’s mining sector will continue to suffer.
The opening speech by Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu provided little reassurance, failing to “decisively address continuing labour-relations challenges in the mining sector, especially the platinum sector”, Tony Zoghby, a partner at the professional services firm Deloitte, said.
Presenters at a discussion held by the South African Institute for International Affairs said violent strikes would persist if the labour relations framework did not become more democratic and miners’ living conditions were not addressed.
A director of the law firm Bowman Gilfillan, John Brand, said there was also confusion about how trade unions qualify for basic organisational rights and what qualifies a trade union to participate in collective bargaining.
“An all-out war”
Owing to problematic aspects of the Labour Relations Act, notably section 18, about what constitutes representativeness in the workplace, the Act has been poorly applied in practice, which has undermined industrial democracy. The result has been “an all-out war” for union representation, exemplified in the platinum mining industry.
The resultant tensions contributed to Marikana and continue to play out in negotiations in both the platinum- and gold-mining sectors.
Brand said the principle of “majoritarianism” is appropriate for collective bargaining, in which unions negotiate with employers on wages and working conditions, and the agreement reached between a majority union or a coalition of unions and an employer extends to all workers.
But, when it comes to gaining basic organisational rights, the practice is inappropriate. These rights include the right to enter a workplace and recruit members, arrange stop orders from members’ salaries, and represent workers in grievance and disciplinary matters.
Brand said section 18 of the Act allows a majority union and an employer to define thresholds of what is sufficiently representative in a collective agreement.
The thresholds set by it must apply equally to any registered trade union seeking organisational rights.
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