BL Premium reports that the budget cuts at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) have plunged the statutory body for aggrieved employees into a crisis.
It is now allegedly outsourcing its dispute referral system to corner stores and internet cafés. Security guards, touts and con artists have been exploiting workers with enquiries and charging to make copies of and complete dispute referral forms. The cash-strapped CCMA, which processes more than 200,000 cases a year involving unfair dismissals, wage disputes and retrenchments, has had its budget of R1bn cut by R99m this year, with steeper cuts of R170m and R231m pencilled in over the following two years. The Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO), which is part of the “Open CCMA Campaign”, tweeted last week: “Want to know what the [CCMA] budget cuts mean? Today we found that the CCMA Benoni has effectively outsourced its dispute referral system to a corner store/internet café. Workers now pay R10 at the internet café to refer a case online. It is next door to the CCMA!” The CCMA responded by saying it would have “no alternative but to take further action necessary against CWAO” for defamation should the tweet not be removed within seven days, but by Thursday it was still up. Open CCMA Campaign spokesperson Harry May said that the real situation facing workers was actually much worse than revealed in the tweet. After spending days last week outside CCMA offices, they were able to establish that in Benoni a CCMA administrator directed workers to an adjoining internet café where they were expected to pay R10 for a dispute referral form, R20 for support with completing the form and a further R30 for e-mailing the completed form to employers and the CCMA, right next door. At the Joburg CCMA office, security guards charged workers for forms and then directed them to an internet café to refer a case where they paid an additional fee. Also at Joburg, touts and con artists charged workers up to R900 to complete dispute referral forms. The Open CCMA Campaign has called for the immediate full reopening of the CCMA, including walk-in facilities and part-time commissioners hearing cases.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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