Amendments to the CCMA rules : thoughts on the good, bad and the curious

Abstract

This contribution appears short on the heels of the enactment of amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Labour Relations Act, as well as the phased introduction of the historic National Minimum Wage Act. All of these legislative measures came into effect on 1 January 2019. In a timely development, amendments to the Rules for the Conduct of Proceedings before the CCMA have also been published that came into effect on the same day. The latest amendments leave most of the CCMA rules intact in their present form. The amendments aim to weed out past problems, to align the CCMA rules with the latest amendments to labour legislation, and to streamline and expedite CCMA processes. The aim of this contribution is to analyse most, but not all, of the significant amendments and to assess where the drafters of the amendments were on target and where they missed out on opportunities to improve the functioning of the CCMA.