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Fines should be imposed on parties violating terms of strike agreements
Leadership from unions required to manage strike actions
DA to submit Private Members Bill proposing to amend labour legislation





The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be proposing an amendment to the Labour Relations Act to enable penalties in the form of fines to be imposed upon unions, or indeed any party to a strike, if a member of those parties, such as a union member, does not follow prescribed good practice during legitimate strike actions. We shall be submitting a Private Members Bill in this regard.

The right to strike is enshrined in our constitution and is one of the most essential rights in our labour legislation that allows disenfranchised workers to take legitimate industrial action as a means of both voicing their concerns and bargaining with employers. This right for workers is an essential part of any democracy and is fully supported by the DA. Equally important is the right of those people who wish to work being able to do so if they choose to without fearing intimidation from unions or their members if they decide that it is not in their interests to strike.

Every striking season, there are numerous reports of destruction of property and acts of violence and intimidation against members of the public as well as the prevention, by direct action, of vital services such as the health sector from functioning by some union members. The current public sector strike is, unfortunately, no exception.

Reports from different parts of the country have indicated a disturbing series of incidents in which private or public property has been destroyed or individual lives placed at risk because of the deliberate action of some striking workers.

The national education department has confirmed that it has received many notifications of assault, damage to property and intimidation at schools nationwide. In the health sector, the actions of some union members to disrupt vital and essential services from being conducted have been especially evident. In Gauteng, reports of intimidation at hospitals and alleged destruction of property necessitated the need for the defence force to be called in, a step only ever needed in a situation of national emergency. Indeed, reports indicate that in the most serious incidents, health workers were prevented from tending to their patients, apparently leading to unnecessary deaths.

While we are cognizant of the fact that the law has adequate provisions in place to charge individual members of the public with crimes such as damage to property or acts of aggression or assault, the DA believe that there is a potential means of both preserving the right to strike and ensuring that strikers do not engage in illegal behavior.

That is, by holding the very trade unions themselves to account by being able to impose fines upon them if their members violate the terms of a strike which would be an additional measure to those provisions of a criminal law dealing with the individual offenders. If we can compel union leadership to take their responsibility of managing a coordinated strike seriously, then we shall go a long way to avoiding many of these problems in the future.

When members of unions take the vote to go on strike, then it is the responsibility of the leadership to manage the strike action in such a way that both the satisfaction of worker rights and respect for the terms of the strike that does not disrupt essential services can be maintained. Indeed, that is the point of leadership. However, apart from the natural principle of accountability, there are few legislative mechanisms in place to ensure that union leadership adhere to their mandate to act as responsible facilitators of strike actions.

To attempt to rectify this situation, I shall be submitting a Private Members Bill, in terms of Section 73 (2) read with section 76 (1) of the Constitution, to amend the Labour Relations Act of 1995. The proposed amendments would hold any party who violated the terms of an agreed strike action, including employers or unions, as liable to face financial penalties in the forms of fines to be assessed by the magnitude of each instance of violation.

The object of this submission is to protect the right to strike in accordance with provisions of the Constitution and, as such, would in no way affect that right. However, it would go some way to compelling unions to ensure that all of their members adhere to the legal parameters of their industrial action.

If trade unions will not exercise their natural duty to provide leadership, legislated financial penalties possibly will.