Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995)Codes of Good PracticeCollective Bargaining, Industrial Action and PicketingPart B : Collective Bargaining6. Promotion of collective bargaining |
| (1) | ILO Convention 98 on Collective Bargaining requires governments to take measures appropriate to national conditions to encourage and promote the full development and utilisation of machinery for voluntary negotiation between employers or employers' organisations and workers' organisations, with a view to the regulation of terms and conditions of employment by means of collective agreements. |
| (2) | The Act promotes collective bargaining in a number of ways by— |
| (a) | encouraging collective bargaining at sectoral level by providing a statutory framework for collective bargaining in the form of bargaining councils; |
| (b) | permitting collective bargaining in single and multi-employer workplaces; (c) providing for organisational rights at the level of the workplace. |
| (3) | Nothing in the Act prevents collective bargaining at a national level to set thresholds for collective bargaining at sectoral and workplace levels provided that it is by agreement. |
| (4) | The Government and the federations of trade unions and employer organisations in NEDLAC undertake to engage on a periodic basis to develop legislative and other measures to promote collective bargaining at centralised, sectoral and workplace levels and to deepen the representativeness of trade unions and employer organisations. |