Impact of South African Constitution & Role of Courts on Development of Collective Labor Law

Apartheid labor legislation denied Black workers not only basic employee rights on an individual level but the collective labor rights also. The Constitution adopted in 1994 included a universal Bill of Rights and section 23 provides for specific labor rights that include collective labor rights. The 1995 Labor Relations Act provides for specific collective labor rights. This new era of collective labor law could be given effect to in practice only by the juris prudence developed by our labor courts by their application and interpretation of the Bill of Rights and the labor rights. This article examines the impact of the Constitution and the role of the courts in the development of collective labor law in South Africa.