Abstract
M.Phil. (Employment Relations)
Collective engagement in South Africa continues to be a labour pain and a national crisis. The current collective engagement status is a major concern and there are no indications that the major collective engagement stakeholders are taking strides or making strategic changes towards harmonious labour relations, especially in the mining sector. If the situation is left unattended, the Marikana experience will repeat itself. Critical to the change management process is a strategy review, improvement for better labour relations and creating a harmonious employee-employer environment in the mining sector.
Empirical research was conducted to explore whether the key collective engagement stakeholders at Kumba Iron Ore Mine have a sound strategy for creating harmonious labour relations between employees and management. The qualitative research method was used with the semi-structured interview instrument for data collection. Participants included shop stewards, trade union officials, labour relations professionals, labour law experts and employer representatives. Data was analysed using ATLAS ti software, version 7.
The outcome of the study was the identification of seven second-order themes, obtained from the perspective of different stakeholders. These are: structured and purposeful engagements; outcome-driven strategy; trustworthy collective engagement process; mutual desire for peaceful collective engagement process; objective approach; ideological differences; and considerate collective engagements.
Recommendations are made to legislation, trade unions, and employers, where it is suggested that a collaborative approach in strategy setting is adopted to map out a more harmonious employment relations future for union-employer relations and partnerships.