Perceptions of personnel practitioners in Bloemfontein of the dispute resolution mechanisms of the labour relations Act 66 of 1995

[摘要] English: The workplace in South Africa has been polarised along racial lines, mainly as a result ofseparatist policies of the past. The resultant social, political, and economic environments createda negative organisational culture generally. This led to a lack of participation and lack ofconfidence between members of the communities as well as the absence of group identity. Thenew government has therefore had to embark on a transformation process in which the economicdevelopment of the disadvantaged black majority has become a dominant theme of the politicallyreconstructed South Africa. This has created perceptions that the government favours labour tothe detriment of business and that the balance of power has shifted in favour of labour.The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 was passed in September 1995 and became effective on 11November 1996. One of the objectives of this Act is to provide simple dispute resolutionprocedures. The centrepiece of the Act is the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation andArbitration (CCMA). The CCMA and the Labour Court are two dispute resolution institutions.The research aimed to determine the perceptions of personnel practitioners towards the disputeresolution mechanisms of the Act. The project assessed the perceptions of personnel practitionersin Bloemfontein regarding these dispute resolution mechanisms. The specific mechanisms underthe Act are conciliation and arbitration as well as the Labour Court processes.The research also aimed to determine whether these- perceptions differed on the basis ofbiographical variables such as race, industry, level of management as well as size of theorganisation, etc.A non-experimental exploratory, descriptive design was used. The sample population consistedof personnel practitioners in Bloemfontein with at least 2 years' experience as labour relationspractitioners. The sampling strategy was convenience sampling. A questionnaire was used tocollect data from the respondents on aspects of conciliation, arbitration, the Labour Appeal Court.Descriptive statistics were used to record the perceptions of practitioners regarding the disputeresolution mechanisms.The findings of the study indicate that perceptions of the sample population are favourable andthat there are differences, though not significant, according to industries, level of management andsize of organisations, but not necessarily according to race.The study concludes with recommendations which generally focus on relationship building as ameans of reducing and/or eliminating conflict in the workplace. In addition, the workplace needsto be transformed as a means of encouraging the relationship building process. Once this has beenachieved, a performance evaluation programme for the CCMA should be put in place to identify any performance deficiencies and the appropriate training interventions should be selected toaddress the skills shortages of the appointed commissioners. In the event of these not addressingthe identified problems, amendments to the Act may be considered and effected and, finally, theparties may contract out of the statutory dispute resolution institutions.

[发布机构] University of the Free State