On Collective Bargaining, Advisory Arbitration and Legal Intervention: The 1995 Labour Relations Act as a Product of Criticism of the 1956 Labour Relations Act

The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (hereafter the 1995 LRA) is a product of criticism of the Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956 (hereafter the 1956 LRA). While there were also other points of criticism of the 1956 LRA, those of particular importance for the current discussion included that it allowed for too much legal intervention in collective bargaining (after the fact) and that the system provided too great a scope for third-party discretion in the resolution of collective bargaining disputes. Aiming to address these weaknesses, the 1995 LRA promised "to achieve certainty and to leave as little as possible to the discretion of administrators and adjudicators." It is against this background that this article focusses on advisory arbitration in the public interest as provided for in section 150 and 150A-D of the 1995 LRA. It considers the extent to which the collective bargaining model under the 1995 LRA – as a product of criticism of the 1956 model – continues to be grounded on the legislative policy consideration of voluntarism when viewed against the extent to which the legislature by way of reactive amendments to the 1995 LRA over the three decades since its enactment has once again increased the scope provided for third-party intervention and third-party discretion in collective bargaining.