Numsa wins at the Constitutional Court
Way back in August/ September 1999 Numsa members, at Bader Bop went on strike to demand the recognition of shop-stewards. Numsa was a minority union in the factory. The company tried to interdict the strike in the Labour Court and failed. They then appealed to the Labour Appeal Court , which upheld the appeal. But Numsa appealed to the Constitutional Court and as 2002 drew to a close, it ruled that a minority union can strike for organisational rights. “This ruling will benefit workers in all industries and shows to employers that we are not prepared to accept that our rights can be eroded,” said Numsa national legal officer, Norma Craven.
The bad news
At Fry’s Metals, the company threatened to retrench workers unless they accepted a change to their terms and conditions of service. One of them was a change in shift patterns. Numsa then went into negotiations and a few issues were still outstanding when the company implemented the shift change. Numsa interdicted and won arguing that the company could not use the threat of retrenchment to compel workers to accept new conditions. But Fry’s Metals then appealed and unfortunately, the Labour Appeal Court found in their favour saying that the company had said that “operational reasons” were forcing it to change conditions. “This is an appalling judgment,” says Numsa national legal officer, Norma Craven. “Numsa has brought an application for special leave to appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal.” The implication of this judgement is that “any employer who wants to change terms and conditions can come along at any time, say they have an operational requirement and the courts will not support us.” Although the particular judgment is suspended pending this application, it still becomes precedent and is now law. Already we have seen a number of employers who openly claim to be using this judgment to change terms and conditions, of course always against the best interests of employees.
HR manager removed
Norma Craven
Workers at Maksal Tubes have succeeded in having the Human Resources manager removed from his post. In an agreement entered into between the company and the union, the incumbent will be gone within three months. This man has been a provocation to the union for many years and last year the union declared a dispute demanding his removal. Negotiations were entered in to but at the end of January, a strike notice was issued. Even then, the union was prepared to continue negotiating and even suspended the strike but after a near resolution of the dispute the strike commenced. An attempt was made to interdict the strike but when we arrived at court, it was to find that the application had been withdrawn. Within two days, the agreement had been signed and the workers have now returned to work and agreed to help re-build relationships within the company over the next period.
Viva collective action and workers power!