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Moneyweb reports that a SA Local Government Bargaining Council (Salgbc) collective agreement (CA) has been declared unlawful and set aside by a full bench of the High Court in Pretoria, because it undermined the statutory obligations of the Municipal Workers Retirement Fund (MWRF).
With the exception of Clause 8 of the agreement, it was reviewed and set aside. The Salgbc, the SA Local Government Association (Salga), the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) and the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) were ordered to pay the legal costs of the MWRF, which lodged the review application. The judgment follows Salgbc entering into a CA with Imatu and Samwu on 15 September 2021. The CA was among other things intended to establish a uniform approach to the provision of retirement fund benefits to employees in the local government sector and impose accreditation criteria on pension funds in the sector. The court found that the CA was prejudicial to the independence of the board of a pension fund, as required by the Pension Funds Act (PFA), while the proposed rule changes were not consistent with the PFA. “The entire construction of the accreditation regime is inimical to the separation of identity and interests between employers and the pension funds and fundamentally amounts to a rule-based intrusion on the statutorily protected independence of the trustees of pension funds,” Judge Anthony Millar ruled. He added that the terms of the CA “stray impermissibly” beyond the scope of a collective agreement as provided for in the Labour Relations Act. MWRF principal officer Themba Mfeka welcomed the judgment, saying that it affirmed the role and independence of boards of retirement funds.
Read the full original of the detailed report in the above regard by Roy Cokayne at Moneyweb
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