Labour Relations Amendment Act 127 of 1998

The Labour Relations Amendment Act 127 of 1998 intends:

• to amend the Labour Relations Act, 1995, so as:
  • to make the establishment, after the coming into operation of this Act, of a pension, provident or medical aid scheme or fund by a bargaining council or statutory council subject to compliance with the laws relating to pension, provident or medical aid schemes or funds, and to make those laws applicable to such funds that may be so established after that point in time;
  • to adjust the requirements for extending any collective agreement concluded in a bargaining council, to non-parties;
  • to provide for the continuation, in certain circumstances, of a pension, provident or medical aid scheme or fund upon the winding-up of the bargaining council or statutory council which had established the scheme or fund;
  • to empower the Minister of Labour to designate the chairperson of the essential services committee from the number of the committee members;
  • to empower the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration ("the Commission") to make rules pertaining to certain proceedings and to the practice and procedure applicable in certain matters;
  • to authorise the director of the Commission to delegate certain of the functions of that office to a commissioner;
  • to authorise a commissioner to consolidate various conciliation proceedings between the same parties involved in two or more separate disputes before the commissioner;
  • to impose a time limit on the referral of a matter to arbitration, or to the Labour Court;
  • to adjust the provisions regarding objections to the commissioner appointed to conduct an arbitration, as well as those regarding the representation of parties in arbitration proceedings and in proceedings in the Labour Court;
  • in Schedule 5 to exclude the application of the provisions of the Pension Funds Act, 1956, and the Medical Schemes Act, 1967, to the pension funds and medical schemes of bargaining councils and statutory councils only where such a fund or scheme had been established or continued in terms of a collective agreement concluded in such a council before the coming into operation of this Act, or when such a scheme or fund is so continued or further continued thereafter;
  • in Schedule 7 to empower the Minister of Labour to transfer the functions of the industrial court to the Commission subject to certain provisions and limitations;
  • to effect certain amendments necessary to ensure consistency with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, and certain other technical amendments; and
• to provide for incidental matters.

Commencement

1 February 1999 (Gazette 19678 of 15 January 1999)