Business Report writes that 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 came 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 30 July 2020 and 26 April 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 were most dependent on the CCMA to uphold and protect their rights. ILRIG organiser Edgar Mokgola said the CCMA was in crisis, with the main problems being insufficient permanent commissioners and an over-reliance on part-time commissioners.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siphelele Dludla at Business Report

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