Judgment has been reserved in the Labour Court matter between ArcelorMittal South Africa and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
Arcelor approached the Labour Court on an urgent basis to interdict the ongoing strike at its Coke plant. Numsa members have downed tools over job cuts, affecting some of the company’s operations in Vanderbijlpark.Arcelor Mital SA argued that the mass retrenchment was covered in the collective agreement on dispute resolutions and that the workers should have opted for private mediation instead of strike action.
He says the court can only order compliance with a resolution process that is for in the Labour Relations Act. “That adds substance to the argument as raised in the answering affidavit. This collective agreement does not make provision for strikes relating to the mass retrenchments,” he says.