LABOUR movements have called for the immediate full reopening of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and an increase in its budget to meet its growing case load.
The International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) on Friday said that the CCMA must be fully reopened, including walk-in facilities and part-time commissioners hearing cases.
This comes as CCMA offices were practically opened last month, after suspending user walk-ins across all its offices in July 2020, particularly for case referral and advisory, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The temporary suspension of user walk-ins forced the CCMA to introduce new streams of digital offerings for case referral, such as the e-Referral platform and the CCMA mobile application (CCMAConnect).
Between July 30, 2020 and April 26, 2022, the CCMA received 29 566 referrals through these digital platforms. During the same period, 6 269 cases were heard digitally.
However, the ILRIG said the R600 million cut in the CCMA’s budget over a three-year period was being felt by non-unionised and casualised workers who are most dependent on the CCMA to uphold and protect their worker rights.
ILRIG organiser Edgar Mokgola said the CCMA was in crisis, with all the main problems of insufficient permanent commissioners and an over-reliance on part-time commissioners.
Mokgola said recent reports from their affiliate organisations and activists across the country, who have been monitoring CCMA cases and visiting various CCMA offices, revealed that there continue to be major problems and challenges, even while there has been some, if highly uneven, improvement.
He said CCMA services were increasingly becoming less accessible for all workers, but more especially for those who are most vulnerable and non-unionised, with the quality and promptness of services continuing to deteriorate.
“There is a ‘perfect storm’ brewing for workers in general and vulnerable/non-unionised ones in particular,” he said.
“The core reasons are: the combined impacts of both government and private sector approaches to dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic; the imposition of anti-poor/worker budget cuts; general mismanagement and corruption at the CCMA; and, the increasing ideological ‘capture’ of CCMA commissioners.”
ILRIG is an NGO providing education, publications and research for the labour and community movements in South and Southern Africa.
Among other demands, the ILRIG wants a complete ban on part-time commissioners acting for employers during the period of transition and the creation of a mechanism allowing workers and communities to report corrupt commissioners.
Though the CCMA was not immediately available for comment, CCMA director advocate Cameron Morajane last month said they would continue with their current hybrid operating model while expecting an influx of users opting for in-person interactions.
“I encourage those who can utilise digital platforms for referrals and hearing cases, to continue do so,” Morajane said.
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