BL Premium reports that the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has ruled against the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) in a matter involving representation of workers who do not fall within the scope of the union’s constitution.

Numsa became involved in unfair dismissal disputes with Afgri Animal Feeds, an agricultural manufacturer. Afgri refused to grant Numsa workplace organisational rights. Aggrieved, Afgri workers went on a two-day strike in 2017 and several of them were then dismissed. Numsa tried referring an unfair dismissal dispute to the Labour Court, but this was dismissed by the court after Afgri argued the Numsa had no standing to represent the workers because they were from the animal feed manufacturing sector whereas Numsa’s constitution stipulates that it represents metalworkers. The union appealed to the Labour Appeal Court, which ruled in Numsa’s favour. Afgri then appealed to the ConCourt, which, in a unanimous judgment, indicated that “Numsa’s [own] constitution restricts its registered scope to workers in the metal and related industries.” This scope “precludes” animal feed workers “from becoming members of Numsa”. As a result, Numsa had no standing to bring a challenge at all. The workers’ rights were “not implicated at all” and they were free “to join and be represented by” any trade union that dealt with their career sector so their rights remained intact. In attempting to represent workers from the animal feed manufacturing sector, the metalworkers union was acting “beyond the bounds of its [own] constitution”, the court said.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tauriq Moosa at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page