Abstract
This thesis examined local government collective bargaining conflict in the Gauteng Province. The aim was to propose a strategic communication grounded stakeholder engagement framework for mitigating the conflict. This comes after the World Economic Forum (WEF) has placed South Africa (SA) in a worst position in the world regarding competitiveness in labour-employer relations cooperation. The WEF quantitative study included 137 countries around the globe. South Africa came last in the list of countries (WEF Global Competitiveness Report, 2017-2018:269). Prior the WEF report, several SA academics and labour writers have made varying observations about labour relations problems in the country. However, little work has been done with narrow focus on local government labour-employer relations problems, and most specifically the area of collective bargaining. Therefore, this stakeholder theory driven interdisciplinary research has attempted to fill the knowledge gap in that regard.
This by, firstly establishing, from the Gauteng’s three (Tshwane, Johannesburg and Gauteng) collective bargaining divisions, what are the causes of conflicts in local government collective bargaining in the Gauteng Province. Secondly, by finding out stakeholders’ feelings about the collective bargaining process in the province. Data harvesting was conducted through semi-structured interviews with collective bargaining stakeholders in the province and supplemented with documents analysis. Furthermore, through strategic communication and stakeholder engagement literature, the research revealed a role that these theoretical approaches can play in mitigating conflicts in the collective bargaining process.
The research discovered that party-political interference in the local government collective bargaining, the influence of historical handling of labour relations, dishonest employers, political leadership instability and unproductive talks as well as trade unions and political parties alliances are major causes of conflicts in the collective bargaining process. This research has further established that collective bargaining stakeholders feel that the employer is bargaining in bad faith; there is
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poor consultation among stakeholders; there is a lack of technical skills among collective bargaining stakeholders; industrial action is regarded as a form of engagement and collective bargaining is coercive in nature.
Subsequent to these findings, the research proposed a stakeholder engagement framework grounded on strategic communication principles, aimed at mitigating conflicts in the sector. The most specific principles identified as appropriate in enhancing the type of a relationship explained by the research participants, in sequence are: stakeholder recognition, engaging stakeholders in a dialogue, integrating stakeholder engagement strategies (co-design and co-determination), resolving collective bargaining issues collaboratively, adherence to performance measures as a trust builder and monitoring of progress. The stakeholder recognition principle is informed by research participants feeling that there is sidelining of the trade unions by the employer when it comes to decision making. The second principle flows from the first one that after stakeholder recognition, there must be an environment for stakeholder dialogue. Then follows the integration of stakeholder engagement strategies (co-design and co-determination), these are important because they make stakeholders feel being part of the whole collective bargaining process. Once stakeholders feel being part then problems become a collective bargaining institution issue, not one stakeholder, and solved collaboratively. The adherence to performance measure as a trust builder principle came because of participants feeling that the collective bargaining process is at times characterised by unproductive talks. This is owing to stakeholders not treating collective agreements with the seriousness it deserves, which leads to trust breakdown among stakeholders. The last principle which the researcher has accentuated that it ought to be put into action just after the first principle is monitoring of the progress on the implementation of all the principles of the framework.
The framework is significant for a local government collective bargaining that experiences constant conflict owing to poor workmanship. It is also relevant in the environment because it came as a result of the collective bargaining stakeholders’ direct interaction with the researcher.