The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration has had to date in this year 2011 already 4,000 cases referred to them. This effectively means that 89 cases have been referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration per day. This does not take into account the amount of cases that go to the various Bargaining Councils. We can surmise that an equal amount of cases have been referred to the Bargaining Councils across the Cape. This effectively means that there are more than 150 cases per working day, referred to the dispute bodies. The burden on the system is enormous.

This means that there has been almost a 30% increase in the amount of cases referred to the various adjudication bodies, and it is reflective of the enormous pressure being brought to bear on the economy, and in particular the management of the various firms in South Africa.

In light of the enormous amount of referrals to dispute, and in light of the fact that as a  Attorneys firm we have been retrenching an enormous amount of staff from various firms over the last 6 months, we believe that the proposed amendments to the labour legislation are ill founded, and certainly counterproductive.

The laws coupled with the inability to access finance, and the red tape standing in the way of business advancement, it is surprising that we have not seen any more insolvencies.

Our President has made 2011 the “year of jobs” and we know that the budget has allocated R9 billion over a 3 year period to job creation. The step forward taken by central Government is commendable, but with every step forward we seem to be taking 2 steps backwards. By allocating the monies to create jobs, we expect all the other departments to do everything in their power to ensure that job creation is paramount. However, the Department of Labour seems to be hell bent on job destruction, never mind job creation. Furthermore, we see that the Trade Unions are doing everything in their power to ensure that those already in employment are paid more and work less, and we see this effectively kills the appetite for further job creations.

MICHAEL BAGRAIM