scholarly journals THE ROLE OF REASONABLENESS IN THE REVIEW OF LABOUR ARBITRATON AWARDS (PART 1)

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carli Botma ◽  
Adriaan van der Walt

This article is published in two parts. In the first part (published in this edition of Obiter) the authors establish the general principles relating to administrative review and consider the different forms of review. Thereafter CCMA arbitration award reviews are considered. As is characteristic of special statutory reviews the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“the LRA”) makes specific provision for the review of CCMA arbitration awards. The grounds of review are presented in such a manner that it has the effect of limiting the ambit. The administrative nature of CCMA arbitrations is considered. It is pointed out that the courts regard the CCMA as organ of state andthat the rendering of an arbitration award is considered as the commission of an administrative act that is subject to the constitutional imperatives of the administrative justice right of the Constitution. The authors also establish that the courts have not interpreted the restrictive scope of section 145 of the LRA as falling foul of the constitutional right to administrative justice. Rather, the courts have reasoned that, when reading section 145 in light of the constitutional right to administrative justice, the alleged misconduct, grossirregularity, exceeding of powers or impropriety as the case may be need only be measured against the constitutional imperatives of the administrative justice right in order to ensure constitutional consistency. So construed, an arbitration award would be reviewable if the reviewing court is able to conclude that the commissioner has committed misconduct or a gross irregularity or has exceeded his powers in terms of section 145(2) of the LRA because the decision is not justifiable in terms of the reasons given. The award would, however, not be reviewable only because it is perceived to be unjustifiable per se; the justifiability must be attributed to one or moreof the statutory grounds of review found in section 145(2) of the LRA. In Part 2 of the article the effect of the judgment of the Constitutional Court in Sidumo v Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd 2007 12 BLLR 1097 (CC) will be analysed as well as the application of the principles established in Sidumo in subsequent case law. Finally the reasonableness standard and private arbitration reviews will be considered. Part 2 will be published in the following edition of Obiter. 

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carli Botma ◽  
Adriaan van der Walt

This article is published in two parts. In the first part (published in the previous edition of Obiter) the general principles relating to administration review were established and the different forms of review considered. It was also established that the making of a CCMA arbitration award constitutes administrative action that is subject to the constitutional right to administrative justice; that justifiability is a constitutional requirement for just administrative action and that a failure to make a decision that is justifiable in terms of the reasons given may render an award reviewable in terms of section 145 of the LRA. This second part of the article will build on the conclusions of the first by focusing on setting out the key findings made by the CC in Sidumo v Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd (2007 12 BLLR 1097 (CC)) as regards the test for reviewing arbitration awards in terms of section 145 of the LRA. The purpose is to establish how reasonableness might best be understood and defined as well as to determine its implications for subsequent review proceedings. Case law that has sought to interpret and apply the principles established in Sidumo, will likewise be discussed in order to contextualise the place of reasonableness in the review of arbitration awards with a view better to understand its implications for the courts’ review function. Particular attention will be given to determining the applicability of the reasonableness standard to jurisdictional reviews. The principles laid down by the labour appeal court in Fidelity Cash Management Service v CCMA (2008 3 BLLR 197 (LAC)) will also be discussed with the objective of determining whether the court’s approach that an award is not reviewable because of flawed reasoning determining that the outcome is sustainable according to reasons identified in the record, and whether this finding is consistent with CC’s findings in Sidumo. It will also be considered whether the reasonableness standard as introduced by Sidumo will have any influence on the review of private arbitration awards in terms of section 33 of the Arbitration Act 42 of 19652 and whether parties can agree that an award would be reviewable on the same grounds and subject to the same test as a CCMA award. Finally, proposals will be made in respect of the interpretation and application of the reasonableness principle for the purpose of assisting in review proceedings to come.


Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel CABELLOS ESPIÉRREZ

LABURPENA: Lan eremuan bideozaintzaren erabilerak ondorio garrantzitsuak dakartza funtsezko eskubideei dagokienez, esate baterako intimitateari eta datu pertsonalen babesari dagokienez. Hala eta guztiz ere, oraindik ez daukagu araudi zehatz eta espezifikorik kontrol-teknika hori lan eremuan erabiltzeari buruz. Horrek behartuta, errealitate horri araudi-esparru anitz eta generikoa aplikatzeko modua auzitegiek zehaztu behar dute, kontuan hartuta, gainera, Espainiako Konstituzioaren 18.4 artikulua alde horretatik lausoa dela. Konstituzio Auzitegiak, datuen babeserako funtsezko eskubidea aztertzean, datuen titularraren adostasuna eta titular horri eman beharreko informazioa eskubide horretan berebizikoak zirela ezarri zuen; hortik ondorioztatzen da titularraren adostasuna eta hari emandako informazioa mugatuz gero behar bezala justifikatu beharko dela. Hala ere, Konstituzio Auzitegiak, duela gutxiko jurisprudentzian, bere doktrina aldatu du. Aldaketa horrek, lan eremuan, argi eta garbi langileak informazioa jasotzeko duen eskubidea debaluatzea dakar, bere datuetatik zein lortzen ari diren jakiteari dagokionez. RESUMEN: La utilización de la videovigilancia en el ámbito laboral posee importantes implicaciones en relación con derechos fundamentales como los relativos a la intimidad y a la protección de datos personales. Pese a ello, carecemos aún de una normativa detallada y específica en relación con el uso de dicha técnica de control en el ámbito laboral, lo que obliga a que sean los tribunales los que vayan concretando la aplicación de un marco normativo plural y genérico a esa realidad, dada además la vaguedad del art. 18.4 CE. El TC, al analizar el derecho fundamental a la protección de datos, había establecido el carácter central en él del consentimiento del titular de los datos y de la información que debe dársele a éste, de donde se sigue que cualquier limitación del papel de ambos deberá estar debidamente justificada. Sin embargo, en su más reciente jurisprudencia el TC ha realizado un cambio de doctrina que supone, en el ámbito laboral, una clara devaluación del derecho a la información por parte del trabajador en relación con qué datos suyos se están obteniendo. ABSTRACT : T he use of video surveillance systems within the work sphere has major implications for fundamental rights such as privacy and data protection. Nonetheless, we still lack of a detailed and specific regulation regarding the use of that control technology within the work sphere, which obliges courts to define the application of a plural and generic normative framework to that issue, given the vagueness of art. 18.4 of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court, when analyzing the fundamental right to data protection, had settled the centralityof the consent of the data rightholder and of the information to be provided to the latter, and from this it followed that any restriction on the role of both rights should be duly justified. However, in its most recent case law the Constitutional Court has changed its doctrine which means, within the work sphere, a clear devaluation of the right of information by the employee regarding the obtained data of him/her.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Ricardo Perlingeiro

Abstract This essay includes a comparative analysis of the traditions of administrative law in Latin American and their impact on the contemporary scene and trends in the general orientations of its administrative justice systems. This analysis is limited to Latin American countries of Iberian origin under the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“I/A Court H.R”). The method followed by the author is to point out the roles attributable to the administrative authorities and to attempt to identify a distinction in Latin America between the “administrative function of implementation”, “control of the legality of administrative decisions” (unrelated to any adjudicative function) and the “protection of rights” (by means of an adjudicative function) while examining their historical genesis and possible future trends. From that perspective, the text discusses certain administrative powers, such as disciplinary or other regulatory powers, and their forms of concrete application; the prerogatives and instruments of the authorities and of their decision-making employees in the exercise of the functions of implementation; the control of administrative decisions by those authorities themselves and by external bodies; and judicial and extrajudicial protection of rights against administrative decisions. The author concludes that Latin American administrative law, despite the fact that its civil-law substantive roots have always coexisted with judicial review typical of common law, is currently tending, on the one hand, to approximate the U.S. model of administrative adjudication and, on the other, to adapt to I/A Court H.R case law with respect to the administrative function of implementation in harmony with the fundamental right to good administration which, combined with a critical re-examination of diffuse control of the legality of administrative rules in court, would safeguard the true role of adjudicating bodies (administrative authorities or courts) in their function of protecting individual rights for the sake of more fair and equitable administrative justice.


Author(s):  
Barsotti Vittoria ◽  
Carozza Paolo G ◽  
Cartabia Marta ◽  
Simoncini Andrea

By presenting the Court’s principal lines of case law regarding the allocation of powers in the Italian constitutional system, this chapter explores the constitutionally regulated relationships among the President, Executive, Parliament, and Judiciary. It reveals that rather than a “separation of powers” in the conventional sense of contemporary constitutional models, the Italian system is best described as instituting a set of reciprocal “relations of powers” with the Constitutional Court as the “judge of powers” that maintains and guarantees these interrelationships of constitutional actors. The chapter explores this role of the Constitutional Court in its relations with both Parliament and the President of the Republic, as well as the Court’s regulation of the relationship between the President and the Executive.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Joseph Marko

This paper analyzes the role of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the promotion of social justice under the conditions of a triple transformation from war to peace and from a communist regime based on the Titoist self-management ideology to a liberal-democratic political regime and economic market system in three parts. The first section describes the political, constitutional and economic context during and after the collapse of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The second section describes and analyzes the constitutional and institutional arrangements established under the General Framework Agreement for Peace, concluded in Dayton/Ohio and Paris, 1995. The third section deals with the role of the Constitutional Court and analyzes with reference to its case law the interpretative doctrines developed in its adjudication of the right to property concerning different concepts of property and the right to work in the context of the constitutionally guaranteed right to return of refugees and restitution of property.


Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Simović ◽  
Miodrag N. Simović

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina was established on the basis of Article VI of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent guardian of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an institutional guarantor of the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms established by this Constitution and instruments of Annex I to the Constitution. Assuming that it is not part of the legislative, executive and regular judicial power (as positioned by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Constitutional Court acts as a separate, autonomous and independent authority and a corrective factor for the other three segments of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this way, the Constitutional Court, as one of the key state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, contributes to the promotion of democracy, rule of law and the affirmation of the rule of law, especially in the first years after its constitution when it was necessary to protect the foundations of a democratic state and resolve a number of questions that have in some ways remained vague in the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decisions of the Constitution are final and binding. In the end, the Constitutional Court has to seek and find out the ways for implementation of its decisions. If the legislator is not able to do that, the role of the guardian of the Constitution imposes on the Constitutional Court, even in the unpopular (realistically, rarely used) role of a positive legislator, to bring the procedure before the court to an end - by proclaiming a law on a temporary basis. The paper explains the concept of judicial activism, its limitations and self-limitations. Then, it points out some of the most impressive forms of its realization in the case-law of the Constitutional Court, taking into account mutual influences and differences. Special emphasis is placed on the constitutional framework of constitutional court activism of the Constitutional Court, which is also the basis for the interpretation of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Südosteuropa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 530-553
Author(s):  
Enver Hasani

AbstractUsing Kosovo and its constitutional jurisprudence as a case study, this paper discusses the role of constitutional courts as agents for implementing a democratic project on behalf of the sovereign as the principal. It discusses that role primarily from the point of view of the court’s functional intervention in improving the behaviour of the three branches of government. The paper begins by unveiling the historical development of constitutional justice, with as its focus the concept of new constitutionalism and the European/Kelsenian model encountered in Kosovo. It discusses too the theories of delegation of power, the contractual relationship, and trust between sovereigns and constitutional adjudicators in the context of subjects connected with this article. To present scenarios where the court manifests itself as a negative legislator, a positive legislator, and as an influencer of attitudes, the article includes convincing illustrations from both legal theory and case-law.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-259
Author(s):  
Chuks Okpaluba ◽  
Tumo Charles Maloka

Although incompatibility is not listed along with incapacity, misconduct, or operational requirements in s 188(1)(a) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 as a ground for dismissal, in practice, it has been likened to all these statutorily laid down grounds to justify dismissal and abundant case law abound to bear witness to this assertion. A cursory reading of the cases of Zeda Car Leasing (Pty) Ltd t/a Avis Fleet v Van Dyk [2020] ZALAC 4; Mgijima v MEC, Department of Education, Gauteng [2014] ZALCJHB 414; Edcon Ltd v Padayachee [2018] ZALCJHB 307 and Watson v South African Rugby Union (SARU) [2017] ZALCJHB 264 where incompatibility was approached respectively, from the prism of operational requirements; incapacity and misconduct; coupled with some recent cases discussed herein, clearly indicate that incompatibility has not only covered the field, it has also acquired a pride of place in contemporary South African law of unfair dismissal. Given these circumstances, the authors recommend the insertion into s 188(1)(a)(i) by way of an amendment such that the subsection will include a fair reason ‘related to the employee’s conduct, incapacity or ‘‘incompatibility’’ ’. This will definitely clear any lingering doubts surrounding the role of incompatibility and empower the arbitrator and the Labour Court to adjudicate with a level of clarity in the law of unfair dismissal.


Author(s):  
Espinosa Manuel José Cepeda ◽  
Landau David

This chapter presents concepts that are essential to understanding the role and functioning of the Colombian Constitutional Court. It covers the aggressive role conception of the Court in a context in which there is significant political distrust because of the dysfunctionality and corruption of some political institutions in the Colombian context. It also covers the efforts of the Court to create a system of precedent in a civil-law context, as well as its jurisprudence on the constitutional block, where the Court has incorporated core precepts of international law into the Colombian constitutional order. The purpose of this chapter is to give the reader case law needed to understand the work of the Court throughout the rest of this volume.


ICL Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta M. Lanza

AbstractThis paper analyzes the path paved by the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC) in order to reconcile the series of its inconsistent judgments dealing with free trade, right to economic initiative, and freedom of competition. For this purpose, this article aims at investigating the role of the Italian Constitutional Court in the ‘constitutionalization’ of free trade and freedom of competition and at assessing the relationship between European Union policies and the Constitutional Court interpretation thereof.The last decade demonstrates, on the one hand, that the European Union law has influenced the domestic case law and, on the other hand, that, in turn, the European Union legal system has been ‘constitutionalized’ through the introduction of social and constitutional principles deriving from the Member States’ Constitutions.


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