Riyaz Patel
The Labour Court has ruled in favour of Business Unity South Africa’s (Busa’s) application to interdict a major banking strike which had been planned for Friday 27 September.
Handing down judgement Thursday, the court said the planned strike action was unlawful – effectively preventing what would have been South Africa’s largest banking strike in 99 years.
The strike was coordinated by the country’s largest financial union, the South African Society of Bank Officials (Sasbo) and had received additional support from the country’s largest trade federation Cosatu.
Business Unity South African (BUSA) aimed to stop the protest, as Cosatu’s notice sent to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) – under which Sasbo planned to act – may not have satisfied the requirements for the action to be legally protected.
Busa said that the Nedlac notice was first issued in August 2017 and should not be relied on in 2019.
In the ruling, the Labour Court said that Cosatu and Sasbo failed to comply with the provisions of s77(1) of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).
“Cosatu and Sasbo are hereby interdicted and restrained from preceding with, encouraging or enticing employees to engage in the intended protest action, unless or until such time they have complied with s77 of the LRA.”
Any person who takes part in the intended protest action does not enjoy the protections afforded by s67 of the LRA, the court added.
Both Cosatu and Sasbo said they will appeal the ruling before the end of the day.
Cosatu said that it would continue to mobilise workers. It said it would also resubmit the necessary applications for protest action, and considers the court ruling a suspension, not a cancellation.
“By the 7th of October we will be going out – we are not going to demobilise. We are saying to our workers, we do not expect you to be out there tomorrow on the streets, but let’s continue to mobilise and continue to fight against the scourge of retrenchments,” Cosatu said.
