Employee participation in decision making in the mining sector

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to asses the effectiveness of the channels (collective bargaining and workplace forums) created by the LRA for employee‟s participation in decision making in the mining sector. Problems related to employee participation will be examined to determine whether they are structural or due to shortcomings in the LRA. If it is found that there are shortcomings of the labour legislation in this regard, recommendations on how the shortcoming can be addressed will be made. The significance of this research paper is that it attempts to determine the efficacy of the current statutorily protected channels for employee participation in the mining sector against the backdrop of prevalent theories on employee participation. Although many labour law authors have commented on the role of workplace forums in South Africa, the relative advantages of workplace forums have not been analysed through the lens of the theories on employee participation.