The South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) was formed in March 2001. The SALGBC constitutes SAMWU, IMATU and SALGA representatives. The revised South African Constitution established a new system of
local government by providing differentiated powers, functions and structures for the previously diverse categories of metropolitan, urban and rural governments. The SALGBC is the prime bargaining institution for local government and it replaced the preceding numerous Industrial Councils. The SALGBC operates at a national level and some of its functions include: administering, supervising and enforcing said agreements; performing dispute resolution functions referred to in section 5142 of the LRA; seeking to reach agreement on forms of consultative committees, including workplace forums, to be established in municipalities and to confer on such forums or committees additional issues for consultation; and delegating any of its powers and functions to divisions, committees or employees through collective agreement (SALGBC constitution, 2001). The SALGBC has 4 sub-structures: Central Committee43, Executive Committee44, Bargaining Committee45 and Working Groups46. Each has different functions and contributes to the handling of local government bargaining.
Local or municipal level bargaining structures called Local Labour Forums were also instituted for various municipalities under the Organisational Rights Agreement47 (ORA). These structures handle matters at the workplace and have equal representation from the employer and trade unions at meetings. The workplace representatives consist
42 Section 51 of the LRA provides the dispute resolution functions of council.
43 The Central Committee has sixty seats equally divided between SALGA and labour. Its
responsibilities include handling the finances of the council and dealing with negotiations and disputes within its registered scope. This committee meets at least three times a year.
44 The Executive Committee was set up after an amendment to the SALGBC constitution, to deal with
the day-to-day matters of the council.
45 The Bargaining Committee has a primary function to collectively bargain wage and salary increases,
conditions of service and so on. This was formerly a function of the CC but was handed down because of the number of delegates involved was too large.
46 Working groups include a total of eight working groups and committees that deal with matters that
arise for the local government sector: Employee Benefits Working Groups, Data Working Groups, Services Working Groups, Essential Services Working Groups, Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Working Groups, Job Evaluation Working Groups, Finance Committees, Human Resources Committees and Technical Advisory Committees. These groups and committees comprise delegates from SALGA, SAMWU and IMATU (ORA, 2005).
47The Organisational Rights Agreement (first signed in May 2001 then again in May 2005) sets out the standards to be applied at municipalities with regard to organisational rights, trade union subscriptions, time off, rights and duties of shop stewards, the Local Labour Forum, trade union meetings and facilities and representation on statutory and other bodies (www.salgbc.org.za).
of councillors (provided they make up less than one-third of the delegation) and management (usually including the Human Resource manager). Trade union representation is divided in proportion to respective union membership in the workplace. Up to two trade union officials or office bearers and SALGA officials may attend the meetings, as long as prior notice is given to the other side. Overall, the number of employer and union representatives should not consist of less than three or more than twelve representatives in proportion to the members at the workplace (ORA, 2005). Meetings are meant to be held at least once a month (ORA, 2005). A LLF may set up sub-committees (Human Resources Development Committees48, Workplace and Services restructuring Committees49 and Basic Conditions Committees50).
A number of issues have been disputed since the inception of the SALGBC. Table 4.3 reveals national disputes between 2001 and 2005. Many of the disputes have been referred to the SALGBC by SAMWU.
48 Human Resources Development Committees would be responsible for consultation and technical
preparatory work in education, training, employment policy and other Human Resources related issues (ORA, 2005).
49 Workplace and Services Restructuring Committees deal with any proposed changes related to service
restructuring, for example, the introduction of new technology, privatisation proposal or alternative service delivery methods (ORA, 2005).
50 Basic Conditions Committees deal with other affairs related to working conditions, health and safety
Table 4.
5 : National SALGBC disputes 2001-2005
Date referral received Referral party Respondent Status of dispute Nature of dispute
27/3/2001 SAMWU IMATU Arbitrator
ruled on jurisdiction
Number of divisions- SAMWU wanted to reduce number of divisions from 13 to 9.
3/6/2002 SAMWU SALGA Matter
withdrawn
Restructuring- employer alleged to have failed to follow
procedures laid down in an earlier correspondence with the union.
13/6/2002 SAMWU eThekwini
municipality
Closed Pension fund- employer failed to
abide by a collective agreement that prevents employer from a) transferring between funds and b) the introduction of any new retirement funds. 13/8/2003 SAMWU /IMATU SALGA Case finalised- employer to deduct required monies
Alleged breach of ORA Clause 4.151- SALGA did not give
notice of intention to continue making deductions in favour of trade union initiated micro loan schemes and terminated stop order facilities in respect of trade union initiated micro loans.
13/5/2004 SAMWU
+IMATU SALGA Open Outstanding matter of micro lending in Organisational Rights dispute.
13/5/2004 IMATU Saldanha Bay
municipality
Open Interpretation/Application of
collective agreement- conditions of service. 1/4/2005 IMATU obo Fraiser and others Tshwane municipality
Open Failure by the City of Tshwane
Metropolitan Municipality to comply with National Collective Agreement on conditions of service.
5/10/2005 IMATU Molemole
municipality
Open Interpretation/Application of
collective agreement- working hours.
14/6/2005 IMATU
+SAMWU
SALGA Closed Accrued leave.
30/6/2005 IMATU City of
Johannesburg
Pending Interpretation/Application of
collective agreement- medical aid.
51 Clause provides that workplaces shall deduct trade union initiated schemes from the salary/wages of
trade union members for whom it holds written authority in favour of the trade union concerned and should not levy any charges for such deductions.
20/7/2005 SAMWU