CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE
4.3 ORGANIZATION OF EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONS WITHIN THE INDUSTRY
Relations between employers and the majority of employees within the industry are
organized around negotiated terms and conditions of employment. The central bargaining council constituted by representatives from both labour and capital have statutory powers to negotiate these terms and conditions of employment. It is also the duty of the national bargaining forum to seek to resolve potential disputes between parties involved. For instance, according to the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA), s abridged version of the main agreement (1997/98), the main role of the bargaining council is to maintain peace through the negotiation of agreements.
It is therefore within the context of these negotiated and agreed terms and conditions of employment that the relations between the majority of employees and their employers are maintained. There are, however, some employees within the industry whose terms and conditions of employment are not regulated by the national bargaining council. In most cases, these are employees whose job descriptions are not clearly defined in the
agreement, e.g. administration staff. Their employment relationship is regulated in most cases by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA).
The main agreement negotiated at the bargaining council is according to a Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa's (SEIFSA) abridged version of the main agreement (1997/98) applicable to all employers and employees engaged in the manufacture and repair of any article consisting mainly of metal and the plastics industry, but confined to employees whose minimum rates of pay are scheduled in the main
agreement, Le. from artisans to labourers excluding managers, foremen, tea attendants, gardeners, etc. It must be pointed out that when these negotiations are being conducted, the parties involved negotiate only on behalf of their members. The agreement reached
between these negotiators become binding to non-parties only after the agreement, with the consent of the minister of labour, has been gazetted in the Government Gazette.
Section 32( 1) of the Labour Relations Act (1995) states:
"A bargaining council may ask the minister in writing to extend a collective agreement concluded in the bargaining council to any non-parties to the collective agreement that are within its registered scope and are identified in the request, if at any meeting of the bargaining council;
one or more registered trade unions, whose members constitute the majority of the members of the trade unions that are party to the bargaining council vote in favour of the extension; and
one or more registered employers' organizations, whose members employ the majority of members employed by the members of the employers' organizations that are party to the bargaining council vote in favour of the extension."
[n the [ron, Steel, Engineering and Metallurgical Industry, the tradition has always been that the agreements reached between the employer and employee representatives bind even the non-parties because the approach adopted by both employer and employee organizations has always been to go for extension. This has been assisted by the fact that the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) as a federation represents employers employing the majority of members employed within the industry and the nine trade unions party to the national bargaining council jointly have their members representing the majority of workers employed in the industry.
Analysis of the extent to which workers are able to effectively participate in the activities determining not only the nature of their employment relationship but also the manner in which companies where they are employed are run, reveals that their participation more often than not, is confined to the determination of their terms and conditions of
employment, particularly at the industry level. It is at this point probably important to posit the viewpoint that worker participation is considered to refer to a broader process of interaction between labour and capital involving both collective bargaining and what historically has been referred to as 'worker participation'. These two processes are viewed as two dimensions of the same process.
It is also important to note that the level at which workers are able to exert their influence in terms of determining their terms and conditions of employment is extremely remote and as such make direct participation highly unlikely. Their participation is through representation from their trade unions. Given this situation, the extent to which ordinary workers are able to influence decisions taken at this level is greatly dependent on the vibrancy of democracy and the vigilance of the workers within their trade union
organizations. Clearly, the active participation of ordinary workers is not guaranteed, but is dependent on their organizational strength and insistence on transparency and
accountability on the part of those representing them.
Workers who are collectively organized into various formations representing workers' interests, no matter how limited their access is to decision making organs, depending as clearly stated on their organizational strength within the industry and their formations, are strategically positioned to influence industry decisions than those employees not
organized into any collective worker organization. At the end, as is shown above, these 'unorganized' workers are legally bound by decisions which are not part of their formulation.
This is unambiguously spelt out in the Labour Relations Act (1995). Section 32(2) of the
Act states that the minister must extend collective agreement, as requested, by publishing a notice in the Government Gazette declaring that, from a specified date and for a
specified period, the collective agreement will be binding on the non-parties specified in the notice. It is correct to state that the conditions applicable to 'unorganized' employees within the industry, in terms of being compelled by the Act to comply with the
agreements reached at the bargaining council, are equally applicable to 'unorganized' employers. Participation by these parties is clearly non-existent at this industry level.
4.4 COMPANY RELATIONS AS MICROCOSM OF INDUSTRY