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Trade union Solidarity on Monday sent an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) to the Ministers of Finance, Employment and Labour, and to the governing body of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
This came after the major cuts in the CCMA’s budget last year. According to Solidarity, the mandate of the CCMA forms an integral part of the SA constitutional dispensation by which the rights contained in the Labour Relations Act and section 34 of the Constitution find expression. “The purpose of this application is to gain access and insight into the motivation for this decision (to cut the budget), and in particular the process that was followed to reach this decision to limit the constitutional rights of our members – and, in actual fact, that of all citizens,” Anton van der Bijl, head of Legal Affairs at Solidarity explained. In Solidarity’s view, these austerity measures will result in a congestion of cases and the postponement of justice within the labour environment. “It is simply not sustainable or acceptable. It is inconceivable that within the framework of our country, where the state abundantly squanders money, the budgets of such islands of excellence are being cut. This is one of the few institutions that still function. We must fight to keep it that way,” said Van der Bijl.
- Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Polity
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page