The CCMA budget is being massively slashed.
It has therefore stopped using its 565 part-time commissioners, leaving the caseload entirely to the 173 full-time commissioners.
Unions have warned that this will hurt workers who will now have to wait longer for cases to resolve or be pushed into settling quickly for less.
Workers are going to suffer the most from the overwhelming caseloads at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) over the next few years, especially now that part-time commissioners are no longer resolving disputes.
“When a worker is up against an employer representative, and you have a commissioner who tries to settle the matter as quickly as possible, in general the worker is going to be settling lower than what they should be settling for,” said Lynford Dor, spokesperson of The Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO). He said the CWAO has seen some cases in the past where workers felt pressured during the conciliation process to settle th