Strict new rules for strikes, pickets

Guidelines meant to end the violence; also introduce ballots before work stoppages and code of good practice

WORKERS will face tough rules and regulations next year following Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant’s promulgation of strict guidelines for striking and picketing.

Oliphant this week released regulations, guidelines and a code of good practice.

She hopes they will change South African workers’ behaviour during strikes and pickets as well as put an end the violence.

“Violence during strikes and lockouts requires serious measures to prevent it . These guidelines are to introduce behaviour change in the way employees, employers and the police and private security engage with each other during a strike or a lockout,” reads the code.

Oliphant also issued guidelines on balloting for strikes and lockouts which will see trade unions being

It must not be interpreted as imposing any unconstitutional limitation on unions’ right to strike MILDRED OLIPHANT Labour Minister

forced to change their constitutions.

The guidelines include the provision for unions not to call for strikes and lockouts before a secret ballot has been conducted.

Also, not to discipline or terminate the membership of workers who refuse to participate in a strike or lockout when a secret ballot has not been held.

Workers will be allowed to refuse to participate in strikes and lockouts that do not enjoy majority support.

And unions must keep documentary

or electronic records of ballots for strikes and lockouts for up to three years.

In August, when the Labour Relations and Labour Law Amendment bills were introduced, trade union federation Cosatu said its unions were not afraid of democracy, including balloting, and members must decide when to go on strike.

However, the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) opposed the inclusion of a secret ballot clause in unions’ constitutions to decide whether workers want to go on strike.

The country’s newest trade union federation demanded that the amendments making provision for strike balloting and picketing rules be scrapped.

Oliphant’s picketing regulations will bar workers from wearing masks and from carrying dangerous weapons and inflammable materials.

Earlier this month, the Labour Court ordered striking members of

the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) to stop wearing “balaclavas and/or wear or utilise any other means to hide their identity”.

Amcu members at Sibanye Gold’s Stillwater mine have been on strike since last month over salary increases and conditions of employment.

Acting Labour Court Judge Sean Snyman ordered that only 500 Amcu members are entitled to participate in picketing at a single demarcated picketing area.

This week, Sibanye Gold approached the Labour Court again to have the strike interdicted and stopped as Amcu is no longer the majority union.

Amcu also accused police officers of harassing its members holding a peaceful meeting on a hill at the Beatrix mine in the Free State.

Oliphant has warned police that it is not their function to take a view on the merits of strikes and lockouts but

to uphold the law and keep the peace.

According to the code of good practice – during collective bargaining, industrial action and picketing – police may only intervene when they reasonably believe striking workers are in possession of, or displaying, firearms or dangerous weapons; if they commit or threaten to commit assault or damage to property; or intimidate or threaten people entering or leaving the workplace, among others.

Police can only disperse picketing workers if they reasonably believe they may commit crime, the picket has been interdicted or there are threats of acts of public violence.

Oliphant has assured unions and their members that the new code must not be interpreted as imposing any unconstitutional limitation on their right to strike or recourse to lockouts.

It should also not be applied in a way that undermines the right to strike or the employer’s recourse to a lockout, she said.