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30 Indus. L.J. (Juta) 26 (2009)
Conciliation, Arbitration and Enforcement: The CCMA's Achievements and Challenges

handle is hein.journals/iljuta30 and id is 34 raw text is: Conciliation, Arbitration and Enforcement: The CCMA's Achievements and Challenges PAUL BENJAMIN* INTRODUCTION The establishment of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (the CCMA) is recognized as one of the most innovative examples of institutional design in the post-apartheid reconstruction of the South African state as well as internationally in the area of labour dispute resolution. Created through an intensive process of tripartite negotiation, the CCMA has provided an unpre- cedented level of access to social justice for employees, particularly those who are unfairly dismissed. The ambition of its creators was to establish an institution that could provide accessible, cheap, quick and non-technical dispute resolution in the most common categories of labour disputes. The CCMA was brought into existence by the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) a statute developed through intensive engagement between the new democratic government and the representatives of organized business and labour. The CCMA's structure and powers reflect its origins in a tripartite negotiation process and both organized labour and business continue to participate in the governance of the CCMA through their participation on its tripartite governing body. The CCMA has been given a legislative mandate to resolve disputes in a manner that seeks to avoid the technicality and delay that are such a dominant feature of litigation processes. Key aspects of the CCMA's procedures that promote this approach include short time periods for referring disputes, simplified dispute referral forms, compulsory con- ciliation of all disputes, an approach to arbitration that seeks to focus on the merits of cases rather than technicalities, restrictions on legal representation in dismissal arbitration, no right of appeal against arbi- trators' decisions and restrictions on the grounds for judicial review of arbitration awards. The Act promotes orders to reinstate or re-employ dismissed employees as the primary remedy for unfairly dismissed workers and also caps the maximum compensation awards that employees * Professor of Law, University of Cape Town; Director: Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Attorneys Inc. I have received considerable assistance from CCMA personnel during the writing of this article, in particular Nerine Kahn, Nersan Govender and Eugene van Zuydam. I have also benefited from discussing these issues with Tanya Venter of Tokiso and presenting this material to SASLAW seminars.

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