Cape Times reports that the Open CCMA Campaign has again called for the full functionality of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), to attend to what it said was a huge backlog of cases and for budget cuts to be reversed.

On Wednesday, the Open CCMA Campaign, supported by a number of worker organisations, demonstrated outside four CCMA offices across the country, saying it would continue the protest action until its demands were met. Campaign spokesperson Songezo Mazizi said the pickets occurred at offices in Cape Town, Benoni, Johannesburg and Welkom. Mazizi indicated: “We want the CCMA offices to reverse their budget cuts, in which they deducted R90.1 million from the 2020/21 budget, with projected cuts over a three-year period have been reduced from over R600 million to R301 million. They had also confirmed that part-time commissioners would begin to hear cases again, starting from April 1, which is not the case. There is currently a huge backlog of CCMA cases which (mostly) are resultant Covid-19 cases. We are calling for the CCMA to be opened and to be fully functional again.” Acting CCMA director Xolani Nduna said they were aware of the protest action. “Despite a reduced budget, the CCMA continues with its efforts of expeditious dispute resolution, using alternative service delivery mechanisms, in a bid to safeguard the health and safety of users and staff,” said Nduna.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Chevon Booysen at Cape Times
• Read too, Protesters call for CCMA budget cuts to be reversed, at GroundUp

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