Keswa and Reddy v Office of the Premier and Others

The applicants, Ms Nomava Rejoice Keswa and Ms Raashna Reddy, are employed by the Office of the Premier in KwaZulu-Natal as Education Training and Development Practitioners: Curriculum Development, a post graded at salary level 9 since its creation in 2008/9. They contended that the first respondent had decided in 2019 to upgrade their posts to salary level 12, allegedly approved by the Executive Authority, but that the upgrade was not implemented. They sought review and setting aside of the alleged decision not to upgrade their posts, with retrospective implementation and backpay. Alternatively, they sought to review and set aside an arbitration ruling by a GPSSBC commissioner who had found that the bargaining council lacked jurisdiction to hear their unfair labour practice dispute concerning grading. The applicants relied on internal submissions and route forms recommending an upgrade, while the respondents contended that no final decision to upgrade had ever been taken and that required approvals were not obtained.

The legality review application under section 158(1)(h) of the LRA was dismissed. The arbitration ruling of 2 May 2023 was reviewed and set aside and substituted with a ruling that the bargaining council has jurisdiction. The applicants’ unfair labour practice dispute was remitted to the bargaining council for rehearing on the merits before a different arbitrator. No order as to costs was made.

The judgment clarifies that internal recommendations or submissions within the public service do not constitute reviewable decisions unless all required approvals are obtained. It also reinforces the principle that job grading disputes in the public sector fall within the ambit of unfair labour practice disputes relating to benefits, thereby affirming bargaining council jurisdiction and aligning Labour Court jurisprudence with Labour Appeal Court authority.