LABOUR ACT [Chapter 28:01] (as amended) AN ACT to declare and define the fundamental rights of employees; to define unfair labour practices; to regulate conditions of employment and other related matters; to provide for the control of wages and salaries; to provide for the appointment and functions of workers committees; to provide for the formation, registration and functions of trade unions, employers organizations and employment councils; to regulate the negotiation, scope and enforcement of collective bargaining agreements; to provide for the establishment and functions of the Labour Court; to provide for the prevention of trade disputes, and unfair labour practices; to regulate and control collective action; to regulate and control employment agencies; and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing. [Date of commencement: 15th December, 1985.] PART I PRELIMINARY 1 Short title This Act may be cited as the Labour Act [Chapter 28:01]. 2 Interpretation In this Act— “accreditation proceedings” means proceedings held in terms of section forty-one; “agent union” means a trade union acting as an agent union in terms of section thirty-one; “appropriate trade union”, in relation to any employees means— (a) a trade union which is an agent union for the employees concerned; or (b) where there is no agent union for the employees concerned, the trade union which is registered for interests which correspond most closely to those of the employees concerned; “assessor” means a member of the Labour Court appointed in terms of section eighty-four; “association dues” means money levied by an employers organization in terms of section fiftytwo; “casual work” means work for which an employee is engaged by an employer for not more than a total of six weeks in any four consecutive months; “certificate of registration” means a certificate relating to the registration of an employment agency issued in terms of paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section one hundred and fifteen; “check-off scheme” means a scheme whereby an employer, with the consent of the employee concerned, deducts union dues directly from the remuneration of his employees and remits such dues to the trade union representing them; “collective bargaining agreement” means an agreement negotiated in accordance with this Act which regulates the terms and conditions of employment of employees; “collective job action” means an industrial action calculated to persuade or cause a party to an employment relationship to accede to a demand related to employment, and includes a strike, boycott, lock-out, sit-in or sit-out, or other such concerted action; “compulsory arbitration” means compulsory arbitration in terms of section ninety-eight; Re-issue -6- “contractor” means a person who renders to an employer services which are related to or connected with those of the employer’s undertaking; “designated agent” mean a person appointed to be a designated agent of an employment council in terms of section sixty-three; “disciplined force” means— (a) a military, air or naval force; (b) a police force; (c) a prison service; (d) a person employed in the President’s Office on security duties; “dispute” means a dispute relating to any matter concerning employment which is governed by this Act; “dispute of interest” means any dispute other than a dispute of right; “dispute of right” means any dispute involving legal rights and obligations, including any dispute occasioned by an actual or alleged unfair labour practice, a breach or alleged breach of this Act or of any regulations made under this Act, or a breach or alleged breach of any of the terms of a collective bargaining agreement or contract of employment; “employee” means any person who performs work or services for another person for remuneration or reward on such terms and conditions that the first-mentioned person is in a position of economic dependence upon or under an obligation to perform duties for the second-mentioned person, and includes a person performing work or services for another person— (a) in circumstances where, even if the person performing the work or services supplies his own tools or works under flexible conditions of service, the hirer provides the substantial investment in or assumes the substantial risk of the undertaking; or (b) in any other circumstances that more closely resemble the relationship between an employee and employer than that between an independent contractor and hirer of services; “employer” means any person whatsoever who employs or provides work for another person and remunerates or expressly or tacitly undertakes to remunerate him, and includes— (a) the manager, agent or representative of such person who is in charge or control of the work upon which such other person is employed; and 1st May 2003-