Cape Town - Workers and trade unions are disappointed over the increased caseload at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) after news that part-time commissioners are no longer resolving disputes.
Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO) organiser, Edgar Matome said that was a massive attack on workers in particular the unorganised, who were not members of trade unions or other organisations.
Matome said the backlogs benefit the bosses “because they would rely on the delay in cases to dismiss and intimidate workers knowing it would take years to resolve the dispute”.
“We have experienced commissioners influencing workers to settle the dispute in a case where workers were unfairly dismissed. I think this has been influenced by a rumour from a reliable source that there are certain incentives for commissioners when they settle cases,” said Matome.
Cosatu provincial secretary Malvern De Bruyn said the CCMA had a massive backlog “and with the draconian budget cuts the CCMA would not be able to cope in dealing with all the cases and workers will suffer because of that onslaught by the Treasury”.
De Bruyn said they were disturbed and highly disappointed in the decision of the Treasury to cut the budget of the CCMA with R600 million over the next three years.
He said the unilateral decision was a vicious attack on the working class and the poorest of the poor, and called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to step in and “show leadership”.
“What we have seen is an increase of the caseloads of the CCMA, with fewer commissioners. We were also (been) informed that part-time commissioner services have been temporarily suspended and that no cases were scheduled for December,” said De Bruyn.
This comes after last year’s reports about a R617m budget cut at the CCMA. The institution received a total of R978m from the government during the 2019/20 financial year, and a total of R965m in 2018/19, according to its latest annual report.
“We are faced with a crisis in terms of Covid-19 pandemic and almost 2 million workers have lost their jobs because of the economic downturn. Where will those workers go to seek relief if they are unfairly dismissed,” said De Bruyn.
He said trade unions had to battle to apply for facilitation because of the backlog and called on Ramaphosa to urgently intervene by directing Treasury to review its decision, because the R600m budget cut had a massive impact on the CCMA and its capacity to help workers, more so when there is an increasing demand upon its services as millions of workers had lost their jobs and wages.
The CCMA had not responded by the time of publication.
Cape Argus