House Chairperson, hon members, I greet you. While members are so obsessed about labour brokers and the Labour Relations Act, LRA, let me remind you about the purpose of the Act. It is to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and the democratisation of the workplace by fulfilling the primary objective of the Act. It is not only about labour brokers, as you are making the Labour Relations Act out to be.
This gives effect to section 27, which is the Chapter on Fundamental Rights that are entrenched in the Constitution, and they are as follows:
Every person shall have the right to fair labour practices; workers shall have the right to form and join trade unions; employers shall have the right to form and join employers' organisations of their choice; workers and employers shall have the right to organise and bargain collectively; workers shall have the right to strike for the purpose of collective bargaining. Every employee has the right to participate in forming a trade union or federation of trade unions and to join any trade union and subject themselves to its constitution. Hon members, balloting was necessary before the current principal Labour Relations Act came into existence. It was done away with when very clear, simple procedures in section 64 of the Principal Act outlined the process of strike action, which is the right to strike and recourse to lockout. Section 64 says:
Every employee has the right to strike and every employer has recourse to lockout if the issue of a dispute has been referred to a council or to a commission, as required by the Act.
In any bargaining there are always bargaining agents. And in this case, trade unions bargain on behalf of their members. It is common practice that before a protected strike commences parties would meet and agree on strike rules, which include that workers would be on the premises of the employer during working hours, use facilities like toilets and canteens, etc, and that the marshals allocated by the trade unions will guide striking workers in the event of a march.
There is no place for violence and lawlessness in our industrial relations' world of work. We therefore condemn in the strongest terms anarchy during strike actions. There are clearly laid down procedures in the Labour Relations Act on the right to strike and in the event that workers embark on unprotected strike action.
We, the ANC, in the portfolio committee rejected the clause on balloting in the committee because we believe that balloting was used to curtail the right to strike. Secondly, it was debated that there seems to be no link between balloting and the so-called "wildcat" strike action - the name given by the media - we talk about unprotected strike action.
According to this argument, balloting does not prevent the so-called wildcat strikes or violence during strikes. Every effort must be pursued to end violence and lawlessness during strike actions and the carrying of weapons of whatever kind must be prohibited. The worker's leaders must be called upon to provide leadership and prevent lawlessness in the strikes.
The truth must be told; it is not law that will prevent undesirable behaviour during strikes, but the change in the attitude of all involved. The way forward should not rely on the labour laws alone, but also on better co-ordination between and amongst departments and a commitment from the leadership of employers and labour, as they are key players in the labour relations space.
The notion that it is only workers who are to blame for undesirable behaviour in a strike is also not balanced, because there are instances where the unruly behaviour of striking workers is as a result of provocation by the employers and passers-by. Passers-by often hurl insults at striking workers along the picket lines and this results in unnecessary clashes. The unwritten rule in more mature democracies is that people do not cross the picket lines, but in South Africa what we call a picket line does not even come close to qualifying.
Lastly, the lawlessness in strikes is outside of the legislative remit of the labour market as they tend to be criminal actions and in such an event the law enforcement agencies need to be brought in. Thank you.