Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995)Chapter IV : Strikes and Lock—outs71. Designating a service as an essential service |
| (1) | The essential services committee must give notice in the Government Gazette of any investigation that it is to conduct as to whether the whole or a part of a service is an essential service. |
| (2) | The notice must indicate the service or the part of a service that is to be the subject of the investigation and must invite interested parties, within a period stated in the notice— |
| (a) | to submit written representations; and |
| (b) | to indicate whether or not they require an opportunity to make oral representations. |
| (3) | Any interested party may inspect any written representations made pursuant to the notice, at the Commission"s offices. |
| (4) | The Commission must provide a certified copy of, or extract from, any written representations to any person who has paid the prescribed fee. |
| (5) | The essential services committee must advise parties who wish to make oral representations of the place and time at which they may be made. |
| (6) | Oral representations must be made in public. |
| (7) | After having considered any written and oral representations, the essential services committee must decide whether or not to designate the whole or a part of the service that was the subject of the investigation as an essential service. |
| (8) | If the panel appointed by the essential services committee designates the whole or a part of a service as an essential service, the essential services committee must publish a notice to that effect in the Government Gazette. |
[Section 71(8) substituted by section 12 of Act No. 6 of 2014]
| (9) | A panel appointed by the essential services committee may vary or cancel the designation of the whole or a part of a service as an essential service or any determination of a minimum service or ratification of a minimum services agreement, by following the provisions set out in subsections (1) to (8), read with the changes required by the context. |
[Section 71(9) substituted by section 12 of Act No. 6 of 2014]
| (10) | The Parliamentary service and the South African Police Service are deemed to have been designated an essential service in terms of this section. |