OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Chennels, Jack"

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Corporate governance and labour relations: a sustainable partnership
(2014) Chennels, Jack; Fergus, Emma
Although the LRA and the Constitution understand that conflict is inevitable in the relationship between employer and employee, it is not conflict of such a violent nature, as has become associated with the process of striking in recent times, which they are referring to and intending to permit. Despite how it has been perceived by the courts and by commentators generally, the threat which conflict under the LRA aimed to allow is the threat of the peaceful with-holding of labour. Strike related violence and bad faith negotiation tactics have been on the rise in South Africa and it is not unusual for parties across the negotiation table from each other to accuse their opposition of some form of misdirection and bad faith, or for animosity to become even more prevalent once an agreement has been reached due to the manner in which the negotiations were conducted. Cheadle states that “it is one of the ironies of collective bargaining that its very object, industrial peace, should depend on the threat of conflict.” He does go on to add that the difference to international standards and expectations comes in how the LRA requires no implicit need for strikes to be preceded by good faith negotiations whereas conventional labour relations does.