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GroundUp reports that on Thursday, the Labour Appeal Court (LAC) will hear a crucial appeal on the future of the Simunye Workers Forum (SWF), which represents more than 6,000 people working in the informal sector.
Last year, the Labour Court (LC) ordered that the Registrar of Labour Relations to register the forum as a trade union, meaning it would be able to represent its members in disputes, wage negotiations, and in matters before the CCMA. However, the Registrar has appealed this ruling. The SWF is an off-shoot of the Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO). Its application for formal recognition as a trade union was rejected by the Registrar. This led to the forum approaching the LC and obtaining an order directing the Registrar to register it as a union within 14 days. In that ruling, Judge Andre van Niekerk said that while the registrar had been correct that the Labour Relations Act treated unions equally, it was wrong in assuming that it necessarily followed that unions which did not adopt organisational structures which replicated those of traditional unions, could not register. Van Niekerk noted that he SWF’s constitution provided for a position of a secretary and a chairperson for each meeting. He said the SWF was entitled to be managed by a standing committee and that it did not have to employ officials. In seeking to overturn the decision, the Registrar submitted in written argument that the issues at stake were whether the Labour Relations Act (LRA) could be interpreted to allow trade unions to determine their own structures and organisation, whether the SWF’s constitution complied with the LRA, and whether SWF was a genuine trade union. The Registrar’s answer to all these questions was no. But the SWF said it was a “modern union” and its “flat structure” made it best placed to represent the people it served. It said it saw LRA differently to the Registrar in that it viewed it as “enabling, not confining”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tania Broughton at GroundUp
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page