Get a weekly dose of facts. Following industrial action in De Doorn last year, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant released a statement in which she said: In an address in to the South African Association of Labour Lawyers, Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said it was incorrect to refer to strikes as illegal. The correct terminology is protected and unprotected. The right to engage in strike action is entrenched in Section 23 of the Bill of Rights. Neither the Bill of Rights or the Labour Relations Act make any reference to legal or illegal strikes.
The provisions require that:. If these provisions are met, then the strike will be protected. Strikers may not be dismissed and no civil legal proceedings may be brought against them. A strike is unprotected if it does not comply with the Labour Relations Act. A court may grant an interdict against an unprotected strike and order the payment of compensation for any loss attributable to the strike.
Participation in an unprotected strike may also constitute a fair reason for dismissal, but the strikers are not acting illegally. An employer may also seek compensation for damages arising as a consequence for unprotected strike action. In this sense an unprotected strike is unlawful. Violence is often associated with strikes in South Africa but it has no effect on whether the strike is protected or unprotected. While the right to strike is enshrined in the South African constitution, the Labour Relations Act places limitations on employees working in essential services.
However, a strike in an essential service is not illegal. It cannot be used to refer to an unprotected strike. Describing a strike as industrial action taken by trade unions in guyana is inaccurate. While employees risk dismissal and civil legal proceedings for participating in an unprotected strike, they are not acting illegally. Continuing to describe strikes as illegal misrepresents the nature of the industrial action and the implications for strikers.
It also implies that strikers are engaging in criminal activity when they are exercising their constitutional rights. Previous report Is South Africa the largest recipient of asylum-seekers worldwide? This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page.
Contempt of court is a criminal act, and engaging in it is illegal, no? First, if strikers continued to strike despite a court interdict, they would not automatically be in contempt of court.
An application would have to be made for a contempt of court order. The employer would have to show that the strikers were aware of the interdict when they continued to engage in strike industrial action taken by trade unions in guyana.
Secondly, nobody can be forced to work. It would be extremely unlikely for an employee to be held in contempt of court if they continued to strike and refused to come to work. No court order could force someone to return to work against their wishes. There could however be specific orders granted in addition to a court interdict. These could serve to prevent strikers from entering the work premises or from intimidating other workers.
If those orders were breached, the workers would be committing an offence. But, it is important to note, that their actions would be unlawful, not the strike. And in the case of a designated essential service?
The scenario being this: Seems to me the strike itself would then be illegal, not any associated action. It need not be prosecuted to be so. In the scenario you described, the strike would be unlawful. As such, the employer could dismiss the strikers or institute civil not criminal legal proceedings against them.
However, if they continued to strike they would face a disciplinary process not criminal sanction. Something that is illegal is against the law — usually criminal law — while an unlawful act usually refers to a contravention of rules or law that is not criminal.
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