Labour disputes 'more than just about wages'

THE Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has told parliament wage increases as a means of resolving labour disputes are not sustainable.

Top brass from the commission presented parliamentarians with its strategic and annual performance plans.

CCMA national senior commissioner for mediation and collective bargaining Afzal Soobedaar said there were more progressive ways of dealing with labour disputes than "positional bargaining" which had been the norm where unions and employers stood at polar opposites and eventually negotiated a middle ground.

"One of the more progressive ways of bargaining ... is the concept of interest-based bargaining," Soobedaar said.

Instead of negotiating over their positions, he said labour and employers had to talk to each other about their interests.

These interests often included issues which indirectly affected workers like their health benefits and the financial strain of providing for extended family members.

CCMA director Nerine Kahn said the commission had seen a "coalescing" of the demands of communities, like in Marikana, and what workers were demanding in the collective bargaining process.

"That leads to huge challenges in relation to how we facilitate that. The CCMA is only given powers to deal with workplace issues," Kahn said.

Soobedaar said during government attempts to resolve the 2012 Marikana strike he came to the realisation the dispute had very little to do with labour issues.

"What we saw there was socio-economic frustration which had been welling up for years and found a faultline in a conflict-ridden employment relationship and basically manifested as a labour dispute," Soobedaar said.

He said striking workers wanted more than just money.

He said what led to the platinum strike was because since 1994 the migrant labour system had gone unchanged. - Quinton Mtyala