Harnessing Dispute Resolution in a Metropolitan Bargaining Council of South Africa.

Abstract

This article reports on a qualitative, interpretivist case study resulting from a university community engagement intervention enquiring into the low labour dispute settlement rate at a South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in a metropolitan district. The aim was to enable the BC to increase the dispute resolution settlement rate, by identifying and providing feasible solutions for the underlying problem of a declining annual rate. The purposive sample included representatives from management and trade unions. Data was collected through a pre-drafted focus group intervention and analysed by means of content analysis. The findings suggest that the main reason why the labour dispute settlement rate dropped below two per cent included an inability to obtain the required mandates to make decisions swiftly and effectively. This resulted in the high financial and time costs which are invariably associated with the non-settlement of labour disputes. External powers interfering in the normal execution of activities in the employer organisation (experienced by all parties) compromised official human resource management (HRM) processes and policies. Challenges in obtaining the required mandates, and the extent of the freedoms granted to individual BCs (to change activities in the resolution process) also surfaced. In addressing the main causes, the written delegation of authority to the parties’ decision makers, the decline of political influence in labour disputes, procedural compliance and the upskilling of the various parties’ representatives to deal with labour disputes were found to improve the settlement rate, as was evident in the implementation of the high-performance work practices (HPWPs) and increased settlement rate. This article thus contributes to an understanding of the causes of, and possible solutions to, labour conflict and disputes within metropolitan BCs.