| 5.1 | Prohibition of two-tier bargaining |
| 5.1.1 | The Bargaining Council shall be the exclusive forum for the negotiation and conclusion of all agreements on substantive issues between employers' organisations and their members, on the one hand, and employees or trade unions and their members on the other hand. |
| 5.1.2 | Non-substantive conditions of employment over and above existing ones in the prevailing Main Collective Agreement, e.g. bonuses or incentive schemes that are directly related to profit or productivity, or both, may be negotiated by employee representatives or representative trade unions at establishment level and/or plant level. |
In the event of a deadlock in negotiations between the parties in this category of issues, the provisions of the Council's prevailing Main Collective Agreement may be invoked.
| 5.1.3 | No trade union, employee, employers' organisation or employer may call a strike, lock-out or attempt in any way to seek, to induce or to compel negotiations on the issues referred to in clause 5.1.1 at any level other than at the Bargaining Council level. |
| 5.1.4 | Any establishment or plant level agreement between an employer who is a member of a party employers' organisation and a party trade union which contains provisions that are inconsistent with this Agreement— |
| 5.1.4.1 | must be regarded by the parties to the establishment or plant level agreement as having been amended to create consistency with this clause; and |
| 5.1.4.2 | any provisions of the establishment or plant level agreement will not be binding to the extent that those provisions are inconsistent with this clause. |
| 5.2 | Threshold - Trade Union Organisational Rights |
The terms of this Agreement and the application thereof shall be subject to the following in respect of trade union organisational rights threshold:
Any trade union duly registered in terms of section 96 of the Labour Relations Act and that can prove by means of reasonable identification, membership of employees in the Industry that it has a membership of at least 15% of the total number of employees in the Industry, shall be recognised as a sufficiently representative trade union entitled to exercise the rights set out in sections 12, 13 and 15 of the Labour Relations Act. As soon as sufficient representativeness has been proved to the parties, such sufficiently representative trade union shall be entitled to be treated for organisational purposes on an equal and fair footing with the other trade unions who are already members of the Bargaining Council.
