BusinessLive reports that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has been inundated with applications for the retrenchment of workers as the national Covid-19 lockdown takes its toll on businesses.  

The large-scale applications already before it were likely to be the tip of the iceberg, Department of Employment & Labour Minister (DEL) Thulas Nxesi told MPs on Tuesday.  He advised that the CCMA had received 17 applications for large-scale lay-offs, as well as 151 applications for smaller retrenchments.  According to CCMA director Cameron Morajane, the possible number of workers who could be retrenched in the large-scale applications was 3,300.  Some of the smaller applications amounted to single-employee retrenchments.  Small, medium and micro enterprises “have taken a hammering as a result of the pandemic and the lockdown to slow the spread of the virus”, the minister said.  The CCMA offices will open on 18 May.  Nxesi advised that it was implementing a decentralised model to cope with the increased workload.  Working out of local offices would mean that parties to a dispute would not have to travel long distances to have their matter heard.  The DEL would assist with its own provincial and regional offices and its labour centres.  To assist with the expected deluge of disputes, the CCMA regulations have been amended to allow for bargaining councils and the leadership of trade union movement to mediate with some limited disputes so that they did not become full-blown disputes.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive

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