of issues which such an agreement may cover are limited and include dispute
resolution functions, training and education and the establishment of provident,
pension, medical aid, sick pay, holiday and unemployment funds.
Workplace forums
A borrowing from the German and Dutch model of works councils, workplace
forums were conceived as a supplementary structure to the bargaining
council system to facilitate joint worker and employer decision-making. Th ey
are provided for under section 80 of the LRA and can be established by a
trade union or trade unions which represent the majority of workers in a
workplace with more than 100 employees. Section 84 of the LRA designates
a wide range of matters which presumably workplace forums could deal with,
including work restructuring, product development, education and training,
job grading, plant closure and retrenchments.
Unfortunately, workplace forums are still a paper invention and none
have been established so far. Despite legislative protection which ensures that
they are to be controlled by unions, they remain moribund because of what
Du Toit (2008) calls fear by unions that they “would serve as cats’ paws for
employers and sow divisions among workers”. Godfrey, Th eron and Visser,
(2007) argue that the forums in their current format are “dead ducks” but
suggest that they can be radically revised (e.g. by having training for representatives
who sit on the forum) and made compulsory in workplaces with at
least 50 employees. Th ey view the forums as playing a critical role in tackling
the challenge of non-standard employment, an area where unions and bargaining
councils have been spectacularly ineff ective.
Tilting the balance of power in favour of employers:
Collective bargaining and the right to strike
Removal of the duty to bargain on the part of employers, and its replacement
with a bundle of organizational rights as well as the right to strike on the part
of workers was deemed a suffi cient mechanism for compelling employers to
come to the bargaining table. Th is however is not borne out by existing practice.
In fact, it is becoming increasingly obvious that employers are using legislative
and non-legislative mechanisms to frustrate and deny workers their
right to collective bargaining. Over a decade since the reforms initiated in
South Africa’s collective bargaining system, the balance of power has gradually
shift ed in favour of employers.
It is notable that while the interim Constitution of 1993 expressly permitted
workers “to strike for the purpose of collective bargaining”, the fi nal
Constitution eff ectively truncated the two rights. One may therefore argue
that in the post-apartheid labour market, workers have to make a convincing