Abstract
In retrenchments, the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, as amended (the LRA) and the jurisprudence of our labour courts have given credence to the fact that an employer and a majority trade union could conclude a collective agreement in terms of which they agree that the employer would only consult with the majority trade union in relation to retrenchments. Moreover, when the employer and the majority trade union have so consulted, they could enter into a retrenchment agreement, which would set out the terms and conditions of the retrenchments. This agreement could include, inter alia, the method for selecting the employees to be retrenched and the severance pay for the employees to be retrenched. Furthermore, the employer and the majority trade union could extend the retrenchment agreement to bind those employees who are not members of the majority trade union, that is, those employees belonging to a minority trade union and/or non-unionised employees. Effectively, this would mean that employees of a minority trade union and/or non-unionised employees could be retrenched without having been consulted on the retrenchment. Furthermore, they would be bound by a retrenchment agreement on which they were not consulted...
LL.M. (Public Law)