An analysis of the interaction between the right to strike and promotion of access to essential services

Abstract

Before the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) was enacted in 1995, there were many laws regulating workers especially during apartheid in South Africa. The term essential service did not have quite a clear definition. This research will broadly focus on the limitation of the right to strike in essential services and the obligation to provide essential service to the nation. Consequently, upon the adoption democracy, and the implementation of the Constitution, 1996, numerous legal reforms were implemented in South Africa. Despite the fact that the right to strike in the essential service is prohibited, the right to strike generally remains poorly developed in South Africa. Given the uncertain access to this right, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) continues to play the role in the development of labour laws in the country as well as other countries. Interestingly, the ILO motivates that the right to strike must not be allowed to public service or private service workers who are serving their services on behalf of the state and are genuine essential service workers. Essential service workers need to uplift the lives, safety and health of individuals in that particular community. The governing laws need to come with ways to resolve conflict between the employer and employee in situations where collective agreements fall apart. This can also be done by enforcing different methods of dispute resolution that prevent individual’s abandonment during strikes.