An Employer's Recourse to Lock-Out and Replacement Labour: An Evaluation of Recent Case Law

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2017/v20i0a1594

Keywords:

Collective bargaining, Industrial relations, strikes, Defensive and offensive lockouts, Pickets, Replacement (scab) labour

Abstract

South African labour affairs are in a volatile state. Conflicting rights and interests as well as the balancing of these rights and interests are contributing to this state of affairs. In recent years, the contentious issues of workers' right to use their economic power to put pressure on employers and employers' recourse to lock-out and replacement labour have come under the spotlight again. Prolonged, violent and unprotected strikes have raised the question whether our industrial relations framework should be revisited, and have complicated matters even further. The question whether employers may use replacement labour and have recourse to lock-outs when an impasse exists during wage negotiations has come to the fore again and is evaluated in the context of the adversarial collective bargaining framework in South Africa.

 

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Author Biography

Monray Marsellus Botha, University of Pretoria

BLC LLB LLM BCom (Hons) (Pret), MCom (UJ), LLD (NWU), Advanced Diploma in Insolvency and Practice (AIPSA) (Pret), Advanced Diploma in Corporate Law (UJ), Advanced Diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution (AFSA/Pret). Head of Department of Mercantile Law, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. E-mail: monray.botha @up.ac.za.

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Published

07-12-2017

How to Cite

Botha, M. M., & Lephoto, M. (2017). An Employer’s Recourse to Lock-Out and Replacement Labour: An Evaluation of Recent Case Law. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 20, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2017/v20i0a1594

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Section

Notes