Compensation Fund, Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, Arbitration on 2013/14 Annual Reports

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Employment and Labour

16 October 2014
Chairperson: Ms N Gina (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Compensation Fund (CF) briefed the Committee on its 2013/14 Annual Reports. The Compensation Commissioner for the CF informed the Committee that this had not been a good year, and the CF had again received a disclaimer audit, with particular challenges around revenue collection and management. The Auditor-General (AG) apparently accepted that the systems were not conducive but had insisted that the CF must find alternatives. One of the major problems was that there had been two systems running that did not correlate, but this had been corrected in the current year. There were plans to amend the legislation to focus the activities. Another problem arose with the poor records, and historic backlogs meant that the CF was unable to deal with requests timeously, and its service delivery was not up to scratch. There had been growth in assets, as well as liabilities, but the CF showed a surplus currently. The CF had not finalised the targeted number of claims, although there had recently been some improvements with the CF bringing in extra help of a medical services organisation. The CF claimed it was committed to civil societies and communities and was carrying out steps to improve worker education. The Commissioner repeated that the systems were being aligned and computerised, but pointed out that this raised certain difficulties with change management, since employees were no longer able to work so much overtime and feared the implications for their jobs and their salaries. Corruption and fraud had been problematic but the new systems hoped to address this through better tracking. The CF was also plagued with inadequate records to substantiate the accounting process, and inadequate controls for both the financial transactions and the registration of employers on its systems. It had lost some potential revenue through not being able to charge interest and penalties. Pension accruals were not correctly stated and there were not reviews and assessments. A committee had been appointed to look into irregular expenditure, and there would also be corrections made to the targets, whilst standard operating procedures would be revised under the turnaround plan. ICT services had been centralised for effective and efficient service delivery. Members were most dissatisfied with the report, and commented that this was damaging the reputation of the Commissioner and the CF. The number of disclaimer items had risen over the years and the same difficulties were being cited several times. Members noted that the performance and management were sorely lacking, there was too much corruption and altogether the entity seemed to be "hopeless". Members suggested that the CF was simply hiring the wrong people, commented that very few of those in the provinces seemed to be able to apply for positions that were advertised nationally. They noted that the AG had commented that the Board too was inadequate, and this was something to be taken up with the Minister. Members asked whether the CF was following advice given, and cautioned that the staff must accept responsibility. The Committee resolved to call the CF back to answer more questions, and urged it to produce figures rather than percentages.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) presented its 2013/14 Annual Report, noting its structure and the NEDLAC processes. The CCMA was just coming to the end of its five-year strategy that ran from 2011 to 2015, and was embarking on new plans. It reported regularly to the Department of Labour and National Treasury. It strove to ensure a balance between quality and quantity, had addressed previous audit outcomes and had enhanced the measurement of its performance against recognised principles and targets. A summary of its performance was tabled, noting that whilst there had been a drop in the third year of the strategy, CCMA had now improved again. Of the 105 targets, it had managed to achieve 100, and the areas where it fell short were explained. The changes to the labour market were explained and it was noted that reinstatement was not seen any longer as the primary remedy, although the CCMA still had this as a specific target. The CCMA had managed to retain its five-year tradition of unqualified audits, and had less findings this year than in the past. The CCMA also had a strong financial position, with an accumulated surplus of R34 million, largely because there had been a delay in implementing the new labour legislation, but CCMA had requested and been granted permission for a rollover of the funding. CCMA had spent 3.1% less than budget, which was within National Treasury accepted perameters, and the expenditure categories were explained. The cash flow position and liquidity were healthy. CCMA had exceeded its targets in relation to broad-based black economic empowerment. A summary of the caseload was presented.

Some of the targets were explained in more detail. There had been strong management interventions into regions that had been performing under par, and this had led to improvements. The CCMA improved its accessibility and had more sites, also used the Department of Labour offices, and had targeted certain areas where new offices and premises would reduce travelling time for workers to lodge complaints. It had made 1  862 interventions in the last year and handled over 170 000 cases. It held 205 events to try to build workplace relations, and skilled facilitators would be sent in where problems had been identified. Members commended the CCMA on this report, requested more details on what methods of communication were used, and how it addressed language barriers, and wondered why so many disputes were lodged in the Johannesburg offices. They urged that performance contracts of staff should clearly set out performance responsibilities, asked for details on the cost of dispute resolution, and asked how disputes in the rural areas were handled.
 

Meeting report

Compensation Fund: 2013/14 Annual Report briefing
Mr S Mkhonto, Acting Senior Manager, Compensation Fund, introduced the team, and informed the Committee that the past year had not been a good one for the Compensation Fund. It had received an audit disclaimer from the Auditor-General (AG), and this had been the biggest challenge in terms of revenue collection and revenue management. There were also some challenges around claims and payments as well as management of reconciliation. He mentioned that revenue collection was quite complicated and the Auditor-General acknowledged that but advised that the Fund needed to come up with initiatives to address this.

The Compensation Fund was planning to amend the legislation, so that it focused the activities of the Fund, and dealt with revenue recognition. The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) required the Compensation Fund, as a public entity, to account on the basis of accruals’.  He further said that it was not really clear who the clients of the CF were, because some of the companies originally registered had de-registered, which made it difficult to keep up to date with who exactly was still in the system. Specifically on revenue collection, he noted that there had been a historic backlog when capturing the returns, as identified over the years by the AG, and the CF still experienced some challenge in getting that put to rights. He gave examples (see attached presentation) of the adjustments and the opening balances in the revenue space. Mr Mkhonto agreed that the CF may have to approach the National Treasury and the AG to try to reach agreement but he reiterated that a fundamental aspect would be the amendment of legislation.

Mr Mkhonto said that the Chief Financial Officer would detail the financial management aspects, but he wanted to stress that one major problem was the reconciliation between the two systems - one dealing with the payments and the other system dealing with the calculation and registration of claims. The information across the two was not aligned, and there was a need to urgently address the systematic problem of reconciliation. The CF had turnaround plans to address that, but it had not yet been dealt with.

He then presented the slides (see attached presentation), outlining briefly the vision and mission, which noted that the Fund was required and mandated by law to be a world class service provider of sustainable compensation for occupational injuries and disease rehabilitation and reintegration, although the latter aspects were not being fully dealt with yet, and this was something that the Minister and government must discuss and come up with initiatives. He said that the Fund's mission was to provide excellent quality, client services and accessible call services, and to establish itself as a financially sustainable entity, and noted that the Fund was financially stable and viable. Service delivery was not fully up to scratch, with some problems in the turnaround times for processing of claims, and complaints were still noted by some clients on the registration process and letters of good standing. However, the Chief Financial Officer would later outline the plans to improve on this.

Mr Mkhonto tabled the slides on the financial performance, and noted a growth of around about 0.3% in this financial year, in respect of current assets, and total growth of around 9% in the CF asset base. Liabilities increased by about 1.5% overall, and 2.6% for current liabilities. Overall, the CF had seen growth of around 18%. There had been a reduction in collection of revenue. The CF showed a surplus.

The performance was achieved as a result of new targets that the CF had set, and it wanted to achieve more by the end of the financial year.  The entity did not perform well as expected in the areas of legal services and finance. He conceded that the AG's disclaimer was entirely correct. In this year, however, he reminded Members that the CF had been without a Chief Director for six months; the post was filled only in October 2013.

The CF had not finalised all claims, and had achieved around 66% on this target. In March 2014, it was shown that there had been some improvements, and he attributed this to the intervention whereby the entity had brought in the medical services organisation called NSO, which managed to address more issues. He said that the CF was committed to civil society and communities, and was able to fund, through this commitment, a number of worker organisations and non- governmental organisations who were educating their employees on the CF and the Department of Labour (the Department or DoL).

A public survey had been conducted, to check the issues facing the clients. The main challenges were the turnaround time for claims, and the backlogs - the second being linked to the first challenge. Media complaints were also a challenge, but the CF had taken out advertisements and reports had been made of issues in Paarl.

The CF had capacitated its staff and was trying to get them to finalise things on time. The two systems referred to earlier were now better aligned, and from August 2014 had been combined in to a single system. Predominantly, the CF had been using a manual and paper-based system, but from 4 August employers in the country, and service providers or medical staff in the hospitals could submit accident reports online. No paper documents had to be completed. Medical reports would also be submitted online.

Change management had been the biggest issue with this switch. There had been resistance and there were serious problems in implementing a decentralised process, a new dimension. The issue was also about performance. Under the manual system, people had perhaps been used to processing around 30 invoices per day,  but now were expected to process around 200 per day. The people were no longer merely data capturers but were required to make decisions. This raised fears as to what would happen if they were not well-equipped and whether their jobs might be on the line, as well as raising questions around overtime and job profiles. If overtime was not needed, people feared that their income would drop and they would not maintain their lifestyles. Corporate Services needed to deal with the change management issues, but these were essential changes.

CF had also experienced problems with corruption and fraud and had to speak to the service providers and staff. He pointed out that under a manual system, it had been difficult to prove who had perpetrated the fraud, and as a result few people were prosecuted. The AG had continuously stressed that manual systems did not deal effectively with record management. That had been another problem with the past systems, for there were numerous invoices and line items, and the CF had never quite got this right.

Mr J Jeba, Chief Financial Officer, Compensation Fund, expanded on the disclaimer and said that he would outline what he and management were putting in place to try to deal with it. The CF was focusing on implementing action plans and measures to deal with the control environment and drivers of financial management, good governance, and proper systems. The AG had raised some important issues, and these had to be addressed in the CF's plans.

He noted that  the areas that led to the disclaimer were revenue and receivables. The biggest challenge faced by the CF was records management; the first bullet point showed that there was an absence of revenue accounting records to substantiate accounting process, and there was also a problem in linking with the journals. The CF had challenges also with adequate controls to substantiate transactions processes, and this applied particularly to the revenue disclosed and cash flow statements, which were also incorrect. This all had to be addressed.

The CF had lacked proper and adequate processes for registering employers on to its systems, in line with the recording requirements, and the whole process had taken too long. This was now being addressed. Interest and penalties were not charged, and part of this had to do with the fact that there was not enough reliable data on revenue and debtors.

There had been services received through NSO, in kind, but there was no policy to deal with these properly, and this created the situation where the AG commented that there was not sufficient backup information, and this was another of the reasons for the disclaimer, along with the lack of proper information on the debtors.

Disclosures were incorrectly stated in the financial statements. There had not been a proper accounting for pension accrual adjustments. Assessments did not take place on a continuous basis, nor did continuous review. There had been reliance on some aggregated amounts, and, in line with the AG's recommendations, this would be addressed in the future, when the figures would need to be presented to the financial committee and   Exco for amendment and rectification. The credibility of the cash flow would be corrected.

The Commissioner had appointed a committee to look into the instances of irregular expenditure, and this would be finalised by December 2014. A committee would also be correcting the errors in the books.

A Chief Director for Corporation Services discussed the turnaround and decentralisation plan that was being embarked upon by the CF. Three members of the directorate had been excused from comments made by the AG, in relation to performance, but some others were not in compliance, and indicators were not clearly defined. The CF had developed an action plan to review the performance targets, and to ensure that they were SMART. As mentioned, the CF was in the throes of a turnaround strategy, and the priorities for 2014 and 2015 had been detailed and included in the action plan. Efforts were in place to establish a standard operating procedure to assist in collections. ICT services had been centralised for effective and efficient service delivery, with the assistance of a service provider who had done some scoping and had delivered on phase 1 to Exco. The amendments to the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA)  had been approved by the Minister and would be tabled in due course.

Discussion

Ms S Schalkwyk (ANC) stated that she was not happy about the report, and noted that in respect of the key focus areas, supply chain management, human resources, and ICT, there did not appear to have been much improvement. The number of matters against which the disclaimer was given had in fact risen - and she concluded that something critical was  wrong with the organisation, its performance and management. Even what was described as "work in progress" did not appear to have yielded results. She noted that the vacancies appeared to have been routed through the national level, so that nobody in the provinces had been able to apply for the vacant posts.

Ms P Mantashe (ANC) stated that she too was disappointed in the presentation. There was a particularly bad audit outcome, and the entity appeared to lack financial leadership and management, showed a high level of corruption and fraud being perpetrated, and she commented that this appeared to be a "hopeless entity".

Ms F Loliwe (ANC)welcomed the presentation but challenged CF on using the two systems, which had failed it, and wondered where the advice to follow this route had emanated from. She also commented that there did not appear to be value for money in the organisation.

Mr P Moteka (EFF) pointed out that the CF had not received a clean audit for the last seven years and the same issues were being raised over and again. It was clear that there was not good leadership and good organisation, consultants were being used as the CF lacked any capable staff to oversee the organisation, as seen from the vacancies also. He asked what were the particular challenges and commented that it simply seemed that the CF was hiring the wrong people.

Mr I Ollis (DA) asked the Compensation Fund Commissioner what he was doing in this entity and stated that his reputation was being damaged by these reports. He asked if the CEO was being supported by the Board and the Minister; if not, then Parliament must, if necessary, deal with the board. The AG had also commented that the Board was not good enough for the job. Mr Ollis also asked the cost of the software, which had been changed many times by the CF, apparently without any positive results.

Mr M Bagraim (DA) stated that the CEO and his team brought the entire Department of Labour into disrepute, on the basis of this report and performance. He agreed that the CF had failed in all areas, and it was of more concern that the same things were being done, with no results and no improvements. He was at pains to point out that the CF had to show results, within the next 30 days.

Mr D America (DA) stated that his colleagues had already dealt with the issues had had wanted to raise, and he described the CF as operating in "fruitless paradise". He urged that people must take responsibility for their actions.

Mr Mkhonto noted that since the questions essentially addressed similar issues, he would give a general response. He said he was "bleeding inside" and pleaded with the Members to show him mercy, as he and his team would be changing the entity for the better. He knew and accepted his responsibilities, and understood that consequences followed actions. Funding was not the main problem as the CF was financially strong and stable, with assets of around R2 billion. However, the structure of the entity was, and the way it had engaged. In addition, a recent meeting that he had attended had brought home to him that whereas other similar funds, such as the medical aid fund GEMS, had around one million members, but the CF was trying to deal with 12 million, and was the biggest fund in Africa. The Chief Director for financial management handled the pension fund and collection of revenue, and this was a huge responsibility. The entity was working on the medical cases, to deal with medical aid issues. It was looking for way to simply the tax and operational activities. He pointed out that the board was an advisory board only. He noted that the AG had said that the board was not supporting the office of Chief Executive, and the Minister needed to come up with other support mechanisms.

The Chairperson raised a question around the CEO taking advice from the boards, and asked what would then follow. She asked him to deal with the questions directly. She asked how many times he had met with the AG and National Treasury to take advice, and whether he had followed the advice of the Board, or either of those two other entities.

Mr Mkhonto said he did take advice from the board and had implemented some of the recommendations. The entity did receive some support from the executive. Mr Ollis' questions related to the advisory board, and it was not for him to try to answer for the Board.

Ms Loliwe said that Mr Mkhonto should not try to shift the blame to the Minister or the advisory board. Advice had been given that was not implemented. He must  accept responsibility and discuss the way forward, and not delay the meeting unduly.

The Chairperson commented that the CF seemed to have a major problem and was faced with many issues. She was not sure when the system to be introduced would in fact take the entity to another level and when it would be functioning properly. She emphasised that Mr Mkhonto should return to the drawing board, pointing out that if the CF continued in the current direction, it would not find solutions. The Committee was not happy with the presentation. She asked the Committee Secretary to set a date, within the next three weeks, when the CF could come back to answer questions raised by Members in more detail. In particular, the Committee did not want to hear just percentages, but get exact numbers to be able to ascertain the true situation.

Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on its Annual Report and audit for 2013/14
Ms Nerine Kahn, Director, Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), introduced the other presenters. She presented an outline of her presentation, and said that in addition to dealing with the 2013/14 financial year, she would also brief the Committee on the first quarter of the 2014/15 year.

She reminded Members that the CCMA was established under the Labour Relations Act and the governing body of the CCMA was nominated by the social partners. This governing body was chaired by a non-executive independent chairperson, and both the Board and Chairperson were appointed through the National Economic Development and Labour Committee (NEDLAC) process, with the Minister making the final appointment. The governing body was the accounting authority, and it appointed the Chief Executive Officer (Director). She tabled a slide on the organogram (see attached presentation).

There were four main committees that were set-up and must report to the governing body, including an audit committee that must report to the Minister and the legislature.

The CCMA had commenced with a five-year Siyacumbelya Strategy, in 2011, which was due to end in the first quarter of 2015. The strategic plan was based on pillars set out in the slides (see attached presentation) on the strategic objectives,  and this must be properly utilised to drive the CCMA.

She asked that the Committee note the  goals and objectives in relation to how CCMA allocated resources. There were strict protocols governing the reporting and reviewing, which was done regularly to the governing body, the DoL and National Treasury (NT).

The CCMA was positioned to deal with social justice, professional delivery and labour fairness. One of the key areas was aimed at building skills to achieve delivery and professionalism, providing an excellent service routed in social justice. CCMA strove to ensure a balance between the quality of the work and quantity. It would maintain organisational effectiveness and strive for continuous improvement.

Ms Kahn noted that there were three main areas for delivery. CCMA must enhance and entrench internal systems for optimal deployment of CCMA  resources. It must set up and use the structure for optimal implementation of the strategy. Finally it was necessary to entrench an organisational culture that supported the delivery of the CCMA mandate.

She said some of these areas had been more closely examined during a review, as a result of previous audit outcomes and the entity had been enhanced to ensure that it was measuring its performance against recognised principles.

Ms Kahn tabled slides (see attached presentation) on the service delivery progress between 2011 and 2014. CCMA had achieved well on the key delivery areas to a point, but then had fallen below targets. In the last financial year, the CCMA had performed well, and delivery had improved again. She had been told by strategic experts that it was not unusual for an organisation not to achieve as many goals in the third year of a strategy than in others, and she wanted to point out that the goals had in fact been attained in the fourth year. She added that because the CCMA was now in the final year of the 2011-2015 strategy, there was significant work being done now in the governing body to draft a new strategy covering 2016-2020, and this would take into account what CCMA had achieved, what it needed to do to take the organisation further and how to build on the excellence that had already been achieved. CCMA had been looking into the broader criteria and mandate under the Labour Relations Act, for the next financial year, so her report should not be regarded as limited to the current year under review alone.

Ms Kahn presented and defined the scorecard to the Committee, using colour coding to indicate which targets had and had not been achieved. CCMA had 105 targets for the year and achieved 100,  had scored 95%. The governing body and the CCMA management, when devising the scorecard, had decided that a target of 3 (out of 5) was acceptable, and anything above 3 could be regarded as excellent. The scoring of the CCMA was above 3.5 in this regard. In relation to the 5% under-achieved, she pointed out that the NT and AG regarded under-achievement of 20% as under-performance, so once again, on this score, the CCMA had achieved. This was an improvement on the previous year.

She stated that within the context of the indicators she had just explained, CCMA followed some processes to identify how the entity had achieved, and set targets in relation to each system. For instance, CCMA had targeted having 17 settlements agreements. However, it had not managed to achieve this, and only got 15%. The labour market was now very different and there were huge challenges in relation to people wishing to be reinstated, both for the organisation and the employers, who might be stretched and unwilling to take workers back, preferring to offer them financial compensation rather than reinstatement. CCMA, however, retained this as a specific target. She reminded Members that under the Labour Relations Act, reinstatement was the primary remedy that the Commissioner of the CCMA could give to workers, given South Africa’s history and problem of unemployment.

Ms Ntombi Boikhutso, Chief Financial Officer, CCMA, noted that for the last five consecutive years, the CCMA had received unqualified audit reports.  She said that there have been a number of improvements in its internal controls and internal control environment, which had resulted in a reduction in the number of findings year on year.

She also noted that the CCMA had maintained a very strong financial position, with an accumulated surplus of R 34 million, of which R 25.6 million was reported for the period.  The surplus was mainly due to a delay in the implementation of the new labour law and other processes to which this funding was specifically allocated, and which were expected to be covered in the 2013/14 financial year. CCMA had applied to the National Treasury for permission to roll over the funds, and these would be expected to be spent in the new financial year, when the law was brought into operation.

She summarised that the CCMA had spent 3.1% less than budget, but this fell within the acceptable 5% deviation range. She showed the allocations and expenditure. CCMA had set aside  25% of its budget to develop operations. 42% went to case disbursements, and she indicated that this was the core of the CCMA's business in terms of the mandate. 32% was budgeted for salaries and benefits. 1% went to subsidies, which were related to how the CCMA subsidised the Bargaining Councils who assisted in its work.

She stated that CCMA was in a sound financial position,  with a very healthy cash flow position which had resulted from effectively managing the working capital. The liquidity ratio was 1.1 to 1, which indicated that the entity was able to meet its financial obligations in the short term. The CCMA had basically two months cover in terms of cash flow.

Other targets set by management for the CCMA included procurement targets, and 65% of procurement must be towards Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE), which the CCMA had actually managed to exceed. CCMA was procuring in terms of the set procurement plans, and on time.

A National Senior Manager: Operations, CCMA, presented the slides setting out the growth of the CCMA's case load over the last five years. There were two major points that explained this. During the global economic crisis, the CCMA had a spike in its case load. The subsequent 5 year trends were related mainly to CCMA extension offices in Benoni during 2010-2011, with two further offices  in Welkom and  De Waal area.  In the past financial year the CCMA had a caseload of 170   673, which equated to around 14 000 cases per month or 3 065 per week, or 680 referred to the CCMA in one day. The global economic crisis had contributed to this spike in numbers, and if it was excluded, there had been around a 11% increase.

The next slide tracked the 13 major operations against which all the regional offices were measured (see attached presentation for full details).  He wanted to speak to three. The CONOPs offices had a target to achieve 50%, but in one day, the CCMA had received more than that, but there was no finality. The reason for that was that the current legislative process allowed one of the parties to object without having to produce reasons. The CCMA was hoping to change that, so that it would not be possible for a party to object without giving reasons or attending. In relation to the target to hear all conciliations within 30 days, he noted that this was not achieved in full but there was 99.9% achievement since of the 129 777 cases, 91 were not heard in that period. 17 392 were late awards issues, but these were sent to parties within the 14-day statutory period.

The performance of the CCMA regions  in the last periods in April 2014 and March 2013 were compared, and this also showed the strong management interventions into certain of the regions that were not meeting or  barely meeting some of the performance targets and efficiencies. In general, as indicated by the colour coding, there had been good performance across all regional offices.

He explained that the following slide reflected that the CCMA had managed to increase its accessibility. In addition to the regional offices, the CCMA had 1191 sites where it heard cases, and these were accessible to all parties. The DoL centres were also used as points of referral where the workers could attend to have their cases referred from there to the CCMA in Butterworth. This had been chosen because the CCMA identified the major growth points where interventions were needed to reduce the travelling time that people wanting to refer cases must undergo.  He summarised that in 1998, the CCMA had nine regional offices and handled 67 312 cases. Now, it had 21 regional offices and the case load had increased by 150% to 170 673 in the last financial year.

Ms Kahn summarised that the CCMA was working to achieve the broad mandate and discretionary functions set out in the Labour Relations Act. In relation to dispute management and dispute prevention, she noted that the CCMA had made 1 862 interventions in various forms, being activities ranging from user and sector form meetings, stakeholder meetings, radio talk shows, imbizos, and workshops conducted for users of any kind who asked for information. Short presentations and seminars were given on the law and updates. CCMA also offered assistance with management conflict in the workplace training, and capacity building on unfair discrimination in the workplace. 237 interventions had played  a leading role in promoting social dialogue and economic development. She said CCMA delivered 893 user and stakeholder empowerment and stakeholder initiatives. CCMA conducted 245 events which contributed towards the promotion of employment security, through dealing with retrenchments or ensuring no loss of workers. There were 205 events where CCMA tried to build workplace relations. Skilled facilitators would be sent to facilitate in workplaces where problems were identified. CCMA also utilised the tool of the cap management system, to ensure that the same complaints were not continuously raised. CCMA would approach both workers and trade unions to give training and assistance.

Discussion

Ms Schalkwyk commended the CCMA on its audit. She asked for more information on the medium of communication, pointing out that there were several languages and areas, and it was necessary to be alive to the vulnerability of those particularly from the rural areas.

Ms Kahn responded  that the entity was aware of the challenge and efforts were in place to solve any language barriers.

Mr Ollis made reference to the fact that the Johannesburg CCMA dispute office had the highest  number of labour relation disputes in the whole world. He asked how the CCMA could attempt to reduce these disputes.

Ms  Kahn said the entity did receive disputes and cases all the time, and would be trying to solve and settle the current wage disputes and crisis and in a very short period, the entity should have reduced the numbers.

Ms Mantashe urged that staff members should, where relevant, be held responsible for areas of non-performance, as it should be incorporated into the Performance Management Contract.

Ms Boikhutso confirmed that committees had been set up, chaired by senior personnel, to look into any instances of non-performance, and the report would be made available soon.

Mr Bagraim wanted to know how much the CCMA spent on disputes.

Ms Boikhutso said that the exact amount would be made available in the next quarterly briefing.

Ms F Loliwe asked if the CCMA handled and assisted in disputes in rural areas, or limited itself to the urban areas.

Ms Kahn responded that the smaller offices were the first point of contact, and the CCMA would then escalate the matters to the Head Office for further action.

Other Business~
The Committee attended to the adoption of the minutes of previous meetings.

The meeting was adjourned.
 

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