A critical investigation into the reality of decolonising labour law: a South African perspective.

Abstract

This study analysed labour law as more than just what the law is, at face value. The study examined labour law as being influenced by socio-political narratives. To better understand these socio-political narratives and their influences on labour law, the study posed much needed questions concerning race, gender and class in relation to labour law. The study noted that all of these socio-political narratives have been ignored social issues, which are collectively at the forefront to understanding decolonisation. The crux of the dissertation was the reality of decolonising labour law in South Africa. The study used the principle of decolonisation as means of addressing the issues faced by workers in the workplace. The study viewed decolonisation as a suitable tool of analysis in that it allowed the study to use the concept of intersectionality. Linking race, class and gender as the primary points of the oppression of employees in South Africa. The study addressed the different terminologies that were at the centre of the thesis, such as Whiteness, Blackness and African. The importance of this is that these terms are often used interchangeably but within the context of the study, they each play a different role in understanding the racial makeup of the South African workplace. The study presented a discussion of labour law advancing access to justice for the working class through the rejection of the civil litigation principle of costs orders following the result. This discussion highlighted the need to not simply burden workers with costs orders that would deter the poor, often black, workers from fighting injustices in the workplace. The study dealt with the omission of domestic workers from the definition of ‘employee’ in COIDA and provided a discussion on the intersectionality of this apartheid-rooted exclusion. The study also addressed the issue of the commodification of workers through a complete disregard of labour brokerage and suggestion that employees be given a right of first preference in share schemes. The study also discussed the appropriate remedy to racism in the workplace. Finally, the study addressed the link between race, class and the right to strike.