Some political parties are known and / or have inappropriately intervened in labour matters. Some companies have already suffered bullying, unlawful and threatening onsite protest actions as well as an increase of statutory inspections and audits caused by such parties with no justifiable basis.

Do political parties have locus standi in the workplace, are employers under any legal obligation to meet with political parties in relation to the issue of employer-employee relations?

In Calgan Lounge (Pty) Ltd v National Union of Furniture and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (NUFAWSA) and Others (J2648/18) [2018] in this matter a political party arrived at the employer’s premises, without any prior notification. It held a meeting with several of the employees during lunch time, in the street outside the employer’s premises. A letter was sent from the political party stating that it had been ‘mandated’ by the employees to intervene, and a memorandum containing a ‘barrage’ of demands and grievances was presented to the CEO of the employer.`

The employer was given seven days to comply with this memorandum.

In response, the employer sought to rather address this issue directly with all its employees, but the matter remained unresolved. The employer started experiencing a go-slow on its manufacturing line, a ‘negative responses’ from the employees, which included refusing to obey instructions and claiming that the political party would protect them. The employer also attempted to get the trade union to address the employees, but the political party escalated its actions to a point where employees started protesting by singing and dancing inside the premises.

The matter proceeded to the Labour Court.

The Labour Court held that the political party had no business getting involved in workplace issues, especially considering that the employer’s workplace was organized with the NUFWSA as majority representative and recognized trade union. The deliberate and specific design of the LRA (Labour Relations Act) is to designate the task of dealing with workplace disputes and grievances to employers’ organisations, trade unions and workplace forums.

Conclusion: Political parties have no right to organise employees in the workplace as they are not a registered trade union, employers are under no obligation to meet with political parties to discuss workplace disputes and grievances.  This is evident from the purpose of the LRA as defined in Section 1.