NXESI TAKEN TO COURT FOR EXTENDING WAGE DEAL TO NONPARTIES IN BUS SECTOR

Bargaining council says it will oppose the application to protect members and avoid everybody suing the minister.

Employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi. Picture: GCIS/JAIRUS MMUTLE

Cape Town bus operator Golden Arrow Bus Services is taking employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi to court for extending a wage agreement to employers and employees who are not affiliated to the bargaining council.

Workers whose employers are not members of the SA Road Passenger Bargaining Council will benefit from the 4% wage hike deal reached in the bargaining council in April, after Nxesi recently extended the agreement to nonparties.

Golden Arrow, which left the bargaining council — a platform for employer organisations and unions to negotiate collective agreements — transports 220,000 passengers a day, employs 2,534 workers and has 1,171 coaches.

It wants the labour court in Cape Town to review and set aside Nxesi’s decision, which was published in the Government Gazette on June 18.

In court papers, which Business Day has seen, applicants Golden Arrow and Sibanye Bus Services, want the labour court to declare the notice in the Government Gazette “invalid and of no force and effect”.

The applicants want sections of the Labour Relations Act to be declared unconstitutional and invalid to the extent that they do not require the minister to follow a “procedurally fair process before deciding to extend a collective agreement to nonparties”.

The applicants also want the bargaining council’s decision to request Nxesi to extend the collective agreement to nonparties reviewed and set aside.

According to the wage agreement reached by parties in the bargaining council in April, workers received a 4% wage increase, below the 6% of last year. Unions had initially demanded increases of 7.5%-8.5%, way above the 4.3% inflation rate the  Reserve Bank expects for 2021.

In the Government Gazette, Nxesi wrote that the agreement, as reached by parties in the bargaining council, “shall be binding on the other employers and employees in [the] industry”.

Employees are entitled to a minimum hourly wage of R40.43, a subsistence and travel allowance of R660.41, and night shift allowance of R9.71 an hour.

However, the bus industry is among sectors that have been ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. Reduced travel, the closure of borders and lockdown rules restricting occupancy numbers have hit the sector hard, resulting in the Greyhound and Citiliner bus lines closing shop in February. About 4,000 employees are estimated to have lost their jobs.

The bargaining council’s general secretary Gary Wilson said: “It’s not surprising because Golden Arrow resigned as a party to the council and for the past three years they have been applying for exemptions from implementing wage agreements.”

Wilson said Nxesi extended the collective agreement because the bargaining council represents the majority of parties in the bus industry. “We are going to defend the application because we have done everything according to the law. We have to protect the parties in our council, if we don’t everybody can wake up tomorrow and challenge the minister.”

Wilson said the bargaining council received the court papers on Friday. “Our legal team [is] still studying the papers and once we get the full extent of the challenge, the council will definitely respond,” he said.

Nxesi’s spokesperson, Sabelo Mali, referred questions to director-general for labour relations Thembinkosi Mkalipi, who confirmed the department has received the court papers and that the application will be opposed.

“We have seen the papers this morning [Monday]. With regards to the issue of the constitutionality of the Labour Relations Act, we don’t think they have a case there, but we will argue these things in court. We will oppose this application,” Mkalipi said.

Golden Arrow spokesperson Bronwen Dyke-Beyer said the company will decide on the appropriate course of action after the court’s ruling.

She said the bus company resigned from the bargaining council because wage agreements being concluded by the parties to it “required employers to increase their employees’ existing actual wages by an across-the-board percentage, which had the effect of compelling Golden Arrow to maintain wages that were much higher than the bargaining council minimum rates”.

“If Golden Arrow does not obtain relief from this, it will forever have to carry on paying so much more than the industry minimum rates … and this is not sustainable for Golden Arrow.”

This story has been updated with comment from Golden Arrow Bus Services.

Source: Business Day Live – Luyolo Mkentane