Tseleng September 2011 - nbcrfli.org.za

Part II: Exposing the Council’s purpose
and highlighting its benefits
One of the key mandates of the NBCRFLI is to
ensure labour peace amongst the road freight
and logistics industry stakeholders. In its quest to
achieve a stable employment relationship between
industry members, it plays a leading role in
facilitating wage agreements.
The Council plays a major role when inter-alia strike
action is contemplated within the road freight and logistics
industry. Firstly, the Council does everything in its power
to resolve the dispute in order to prevent strike action. The
process will include holding meeting(s) where both parties
to the dispute are present in order to mediate between the
parties and resolve the dispute. The NBCRFLI Constitution
provides for the following options which endeavour to
resolve disputes:
(i) The aggrieved party may refer the dispute in writing to
the Council within 30 days of the dispute arising.
(ii) The National Secretary must then convene at least
two special meetings of Council to attempt to resolve
the dispute.
(iii) If the dispute is not resolved at the special meetings,
the parties may agree whether further meetings of the
Council should be convened to resolve the dispute or
whether the dispute should be referred to voluntary
mediation or arbitration.
(iv) If no settlement is reached as contemplated in (iii)
above, any party to the dispute shall be entitled
to invoke the procedures contained in the Labour
Relations Act.
Wage Agreements
The Labour Relations Act, 1995 empowers the NBCRFLI
to negotiate and conclude substantive agreements on
inter-alia wages in the road freight and logistics industry.
Negotiations between the parties commence by following
the agreed procedures as set out in the Negotiation
Protocol document signed by all the parties to the Council.
These procedures provide for pre-negotiation preparation
by parties, time frames within which to conclude an
agreement, outcomes and objectives of the prenegotiation
preparations and finally the negotiation stage.
Once the parties have concluded a wage agreement,
it must be documented in writing and signed by parties
who agreed to it. Council officials then become involved
in the administrative procedures in order to get the wage
agreement promulgated and extended to non-parties
in the industry. Once the wage agreement has been
promulgated, designated agents of the Council will ensure
that the industry complies with the provisions of the wage
agreement by conducting inspections and investigations.
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NBCRFLI | TSELENG SEPTEMBER 2011