LETTER: An accessible, well-funded CCMA is essential for labour justice

At a meeting of the parliamentary portfolio committee on employment & labour, I specifically asked the commissioner of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) whether the closure of its offices during the Covid-19 pandemic had affected the public.

During that period, the CCMA took a decision to only allow physical visits to its offices if people were coming in for a conciliation or arbitration hearings. This closure negatively affected thousands of desperate employees who were either not computer literate or did not have the wherewithal to refer disputes to the CCMA via the virtual platforms. I regularly received complaints from these potential litigants about their inability to lodge claims with the CCMA.

The commissioner agreed that the public had been affected by this closure and said he was putting in place a protocol to ensure CCMA offices would be open by May 1 2022. It has now been officially announced that the offices will be opening, and will accept disputes from the public. This is essential for labour justice to be dispensed.

Service delivery was also adversely affected when the employment & labour ministry radically cut the CCMA budget. Though the CCMA does not have the required funding to service the working public, I must commend the commission’s administrative staff, who have been doing their utmost to ensure the wheels of labour justice turn faster than those of the justice department.

I have also been informed that the nightmare experienced by the part-time CCMA commissioners is being relieved slightly. Many of these part-time commissioners were only given contracts to deliver services three days a month, because the CCMA did not have the funding. This seems to be increasing, and litigants are now finding it easier to get earlier arbitration dates.

The CCMA is once again raising its game to become the shining jewel in the department of employment & labour.

Michael Bagraim, MP
DA shadow deputy employment & labour minister

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