18 July 2023
A protest organised by the Simunye Workers Forum in 2021. The Registrar of Labour Relations wants to appeal against the Labour Court decision allowing the Forum to register as a trade union. Archive photo: Kimberly Mutandiro
The Registrar of Labour Relations wants to appeal a Labour Court ruling that the Simunye Workers Forum can register as a trade union.
The Registrar says the order by Johannesburg Labour Court Judge Andre Van Niekerk, directing it to register the Forum as a trade union cannot go unchallenged. It has filed an application for permission to appeal the ruling in the Labour Appeal Court.
In his application, lodged with the court, the Registrar says the Forum does not meet the requirements, laid out in the Labour Relations Act, for registration as a trade union.
“The requirements are not peremptory. The Act treats all unions equally. There is no provision for traditional and new trade unions in the labour market. If this was the case, the Act would have been amended accordingly.”
“The issue raises an important issue of law which has an effect on future litigation regarding the registrar’s decisions.”
Following Judge van Niekerk’s ruling, the Forum, which has about 6,600 members, said once it was registered, it would be able to represent its members in disputes, wage negotiations and in matters before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Following the application for leave to appeal, all that will be put on hold.
In a statement, the Forum and its associated Casual Workers Advice Office, said following the ruling, hundreds of casual workers had applied for membership “because no other union is willing to represent these workers”.
“The Registrar still insists that he will only register trade unions that have office bearers that are elected for long terms of office. This despite the rampant corruption that has taken place in so many unions as a result of national office bearers taking control of union bank accounts, some of which had built up hundreds of millions of rands in reserves since they formed in the late 1980s.”
“But we are not surprised by the appeal.”
The Forum went to court after the Registrar of Labour Relations repeatedly refused to register it as a union.
Judge van Niekerk, in his ruling, said the Forum’s constitution records that it had deliberately constituted itself to be different from the organisational model developed by traditional South African trade union movement. It aimed to keep decision-making power in the hands of those members affected by the decision and to ensure that all work done by members is without remuneration, so as to remove any potential for personal financial interest.
He said he failed to see how the Forum’s constitution failed to meet the requirements of the Act.
He ordered the Registrar to register it as a trade union within 14 days and ordered the Registrar to pay some of the costs.
A date for the leave to appeal hearing has not yet been set.