Prasa wins R35m court battle against unions

When Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula today briefs the media on the state of operations at the beleaguered state-owned rail service, he will have on his mind at least one less fire that needs putting out.

The Labour Court in Cape Town late last year overturned a R35 million Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) award against the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).

Prasa approached the court after the CCMA deemed more than 160 of its fixed-term contract workers “employed on an indefinite basis from April 1, 2015,” and ruled that Prasa pay them R35,455,140.

The issue arose after the Labour Relations Act was amended to allow for a fixed-term contract to “convert” into an indefinite contract after three months, in effect making an employee permanent.

The Prasa workers in question were employed on a fixed-term contract basis when the amendment came into effect and remained in the employ of Prasa, but were not required to sign new contracts.

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and the United National Transport Union subsequently approached the CCMA with a number of disputes, including the issue of the fixed-term contracts, but these were later settled at a special meeting of the Prasa Bargaining Forum.

Unhappy with Prasa’s handling of the settlement agreement, though, the workers then also approached the CCMA with the case, citing it as an “unfair labour practice dispute”.

In handing down judgment on Prasa’s application to have the CCMA’s resultant award reviewed and set aside, the Labour Court said the arbitrator who had made the award had “lacked jurisdiction to deal with the dispute”.

The court also slammed the arbitrator who dealt with the matter, saying he had clearly “identified the true dispute as one relating to fixed-term contracts as opposed to unfair labour practices”.

“It is clear that the dispute was never dealt with as an unfair labour practice, either at conciliation or at arbitration … to the extent that when the arbitrator dealt with the matter on the basis that he was dealing with an unfair labour practice, he committed a gross irregularity.”

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