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Today I briefed the Parliamentary Committee on Private Members’ Legislative Proposals and Special Petitions on the DA Private Members' Bill amending the Labour Relations Act of 1995. The amendment aims to clamp down on strike violence by taking measures to empower courts to act and by requiring unions to take measures to prevent violence.
This legislative proposal is not about unions, nor is it about the right to strike or the rights of workers or employers; it is about violence and the role of the courts and union bosses in clamping down or preventing violence on the streets of South Africa, when picketing or strike action occurs. The right to picket or strike is quite normal in any modern society and, if properly regulated, provides workers with a means to protest when they feel that their rights have been violated or their working conditions are not acceptable.
However, strike action has become almost synonymous with the dark underbelly of violence in recent years, with up to 100 workers or members of the public being killed or severely injured during the course of strike action. This is unacceptable and measures need to be put in place to stop the fatalities, prevent the violence and protect the public from strikes that have turned violent.
The DA's proposal suggests the following measures to reign in the violence during strike action:
1. That the state requires unions to comply with a list of practical measures aimed at limiting or preventing violence before it occurs, including: 

-- Education of workers regarding violence and the law before these workers go out on strike
-- Increased marshalling required by unions for crowd control purposes
-- Formal liaison with government security apparatus – the national Police, Metro Police, and so on, to limit conflict

2. That courts be empowered to stop a strike that has become excessively violent by forcing the parties into arbitration
3. That courts be empowered to declare a strike that has become excessively violent as unprotected
4. That courts be empowered to award damages, even punitive damages, against unions that have not implemented measures required in point 1
5. That courts be empowered to award damages, even punitive damages, against unions whose members have, during an organised strike supported by that union, committed violence, injured innocent parties or damaged property.
These principles will go a long way towards focussing the minds of union bosses on taking practical steps to prevent healthy strike or picket actions from becoming violent. The DA will push for this legislation to be drafted and debated in Parliament and at the National Economic and Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) in order to protect ordinary South Africans from the violence that sometimes occurs when strike or picket action goes awry.