LRA amendment possible to unclog system Minister
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana is considering an amendment to the Labour Relations Act to prevent high-profile workers from clogging the system, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
He told the paper it was not labour legislation, but how it was used that was hampering job creation. The CCMA was not being used effectively, he said. If I must amend the law, I will to ensure that the CCMA is used by people who are vulnerable. Labour attorney John MacRobert, who represents sacked parliamentary finance chief Harry Charlton, said he had not experienced delays caused by special attention being granted to high-profile cases. Clearly, there cant be one kind of law for the poor and another for the rich, he said. Mdladlana said attorneys were being pulled in to represent companies afraid of losing at the CCMA, while workers often went unrepresented. High-profile cases were pushed to the head of the queue, while ordinary workers had to wait. Asked where a high-profile worker, like Charlton, should take his case, Mdladlana suggested the Labour Court or High Court. Charlton, who blew the whistle on MPs cheating Parliament out of millions in fraudulent travel claims, was sacked last year for exceeding his authority in signing unrelated staff and equipment contracts. Full Sunday Times report