Workers' Perceptions Towards the Establishment of Workplace Forums in South African Industries
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of workers towards the establishment of workplace forums in South Africa industries. Workplace forums are committees of employees elected by employees for employees in a workplace. These bodies promote the interests of all employees in the workplace, not only of trade union members. In this study, 30 respondents (management and employees of all races and gender) were selected to participate from 230 employees using a simple random technique. The cluster system was used to divide the industry into departments from which the final respondents were selected. The observation method and most of the official records and statistics were also used to collect and solicit the necessary information for this research. The central view held by this study was that workplace forums are very useful in achieving efficiency in the workplace and that they help in improving trade union activities. The critical view of the study was that there are few workplace forums established in South African industries. This showed that, the industries should provide some possible measures for the establishment of the workplace forums to reduce industrial unrest. But the problem is that trade unions did not encourage this because they see workplace forum as a threat to them. Nonetheless, special attention was on workplace forums because it was taken as a second channel of representation which intended to be one of the primary instruments of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) to democratise the workplace. The study recommended that; workplace forums should be established in all industries. Trade unions should be involved in the workplace forums. There should be the prevention of the establishment of other forums within one organisation. Management and workers should work together to prevent impending conflict.
References
Bendix, S. (1996). Industrial Relations in South Africa. Juta. South Africa.
Biasi, M. (2014). "On the Uses and Misuses of Worker Participation: Different Forms for Different Aims of Employee Involvement" 2014 IJCLLIR 459-481.
Botha, M.M. (2015). In search of alternatives or enhancements to collective bargaining in South Africa: Are workplace forums a viable option? Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (PER / PELJ) 2015(18)5.
CCMA (2018). Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commentary and Input on ‘Understanding the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Dispute Resolution System in South Africa’.
Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. Retrieved from: https://www.ccma.org.za.
Dahrendoff, R. (1959): Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society, Stanford University Press: Carlifonia.
Dynamics, Vo1.17 No.6: 36. 58. Marx, K. (1978): Genesis of Capital, Progress Publishers: Moscow.
Ernesto Screpanti, (2019). Labour and Value: Rethinking Marx’s Theory of Exploitation. Open Book publishers. Retrieved from: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/.
Finnemore, M. (2009). Introduction to Labour Relations in South Africa, LexisNexis: Durban.
Godfrey, S. (2018). Multi-Employer Collective Bargaining in South Africa. International labour Office (ILO). Geneva.
Greeff, J. (2021). Workplace forums – Do they actually “work” in South Africa. 23 March 2021. Retrieved from:http://ceosa.org.za/workplace-forums-do-they-actually-work-in-south-africa/.
Goodwin, J. & Green, A. I. (2008). Peace, & Conflict. Encyclopaedia of Violence, (Second Edition).
Haralambos, M. (1980): Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, University Tutorial Press Ltd: Great Britain. 36. Hickling, M.A (1967): Citrine's Trade Union Law, Stevens and Son Ltd: London.
Hocker, J. L. & Wilmot, W.W. (2011). Interpersonal Conflict (8th ed.). Publisher: McGraw-Hill, New York.
Human Sciences Research Council- (HSRC) Retrieved from: https://hsrc.ac.za.
Hyman, R (1978): Strikes (4thEdition) Basingstoke, McMillan Education: Great Britain.
Hyman, R (1989): Strikes, McMillan Press: Great Britain.
Islam, Md. J. (2021). Performing Chi-square Test in Cancer Research by using Excel. Cancer Journal Bangladesh 2021 2(2):11-15. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365373310_Performing_Chisquare_Test_inCancerResearch_by_using_Excel.
Kauth, K. (2020). Cost of workplace conflict. Mediate.com. Retrieved November 27, 2021, Retrieved from: https://www.mediate.com/articles/kauth-cost-workplace.cfsm.
Kothari, C. R. (2007). Quantitative techniques. UBS Publishers Ltd., New Delhi.
Labour Relations Act (Act 66 of 1995). Retrieved from: www.gov.za.
Lavakush S. (2022). A Practical Application of Chi-square Test in Hypothesis Testing.
Empirical Economics Letters, 21 (Special Issue 1) June 2022. Retrieved from:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368754795_A_Practical_Application_of_Chi-square_Test_in_Hypothesis_Testing.
Marais, P. and Israelstram, I. (1997) " Stages of implementing a workplace forum," People.
Mtayi, F. (1997) "Historical background on the development of the workplace forum." Juta's Business Law, VoI. 5 No.3: 98.
Ministerial Task Team 1995 ILJ Ministerial Task Team "Explanatory Memorandum to the Draft Labour Relations Bill" 1995 ILJ 278-320.
Mouly, C. (1972): Educational Research: The Art and Science of Investigation, Allyn and Bacon: Boston.
Mukhopadhyay, N. (2020). Probability and Statistical Inference. eBook Published by Imprint CRC Press. Location Boca Raton, 31 August 2020. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429258336.
Daniel, P.S. & Sam, A. G. (2011). Research Methodology. Chowla Offset Press, Delhi.
Musto, M. (2010). Revisiting Marx’s concept of alienation. Socialism and Democracy, 24 (3), 79-101.
Nihan Sölpük Turhan (2020). Karl Pearson’s chi-square tests. Educational Research and Reviews, Academic Journals (AJ) Vol. 15(9), pp. 575-580, September 2020. Retrieved from:http://www.academicjournals.org/ERR.
Mukhopadhyay, R. (2020). Karl Marx’s Theory of Alienation. Available at SSRN 3843057.
Nel, P. S. & Kirsten, M. 2000. ‘Workplace Forums and worker participation in South Africa: Some research results’, South African Journal of Labour Relations, Autumn/Winter: 28-55.
Okharedia, A. A. 2007. ‘Workplace Forums - boon or bane of South African industry?’ Convergence, 8(1):86-89.
Olivia Guy-Evans, O. (2023), Marx’s Theory of Alienation. Simply Sociology. Updated on April 20. Retrieved from:https://simplysociology.com/marx-alienation.html.
RSA (Republic of South Africa). 1995a. Labour Relations Act No 66 of 1995. Pretoria: Government Printers.
Singhal, R. & Rana, R. (2015). Chi-square test and its application in hypothesis testing. Journal of the Practice of Cardiovascular Sciences 1(1) January 2015. Retrieved from:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277935900_Chisquare_test_and_its_application_inhypothesis_testing.
Segal, J. Ph.D., Robinson, L and Smith, M. M.A. (2023). Conflict Resolution. 24 February 2023. Retrieved from:https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/conflict-resolution-skills.htm.
The mercury reporter (1998) "Wages deal ends strike," The mercury Thursday July 9: 5. 82. The Ministerial Legal Task Team, (1997) "Designation of the workplace forum," Journal of African law, Vol.41 No. l: 137.
Tummers, L. & den Dulk, L. (2013). The Effects of Work Alienation on Organizational Commitment, Work Effort and Work-to-Family Enrichment. Journal of Nursing Management, 2013, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2289200.
Van der Walt, R. (2008). "Have Workplace Forums Contributed to Worker Participation? Some Management Perceptions" South African Journal of Business Management. Vol 39, No 2. 45-51.
Van der Walt, R. (1998) "Origins of the workplace forum system," People Dynamics, Vol.17 No.6: 36.
Van der Walt, R. V. M. (1998). ‘What is happening with regard to Workplace Forums in South African organisations?’ People Dynamics, South African Journal of Business Management, 16(6): 25-39.
Van Holdt, K. (1995) "What is a workplace forum," South African Labour Bulletin, VoI.19 No. l: 18-19.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
