Parsons Transport Operations (Pty) Ltd v Mkansi and Others

Parsons Transport Operations (Pty) Ltd applied to the Labour Court to review and set aside an enforcement arbitration award issued under the auspices of the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight & Logistics Industry. The award arose from a compliance order and a statement of contraventions allegedly issued after the applicant failed to comply with collective agreements. The commissioner accepted the uncontested evidence of the bargaining council’s designated agent and ordered the applicant to comply with the collective agreement, register its business and employees with the bargaining council, and pay R50 645.91 in penalties and other amounts. The applicant launched an unopposed review application but failed to place before the Labour Court the arbitration record, the compliance order, or the statement of contraventions. Despite requesting documents directly from the bargaining council, and filing a bundle of documents, no record of the arbitration proceedings was before the Court.

The review application was postponed sine die to allow the applicant to take appropriate steps to obtain or reconstruct the record of the arbitration proceedings. No order as to costs was made.

The judgment reinforces the central importance of a complete arbitration record in Labour Court review proceedings and provides practical guidance on how courts should deal with reviews where the record is missing. It confirms that while dismissal is competent in appropriate cases, postponement will generally be preferred where fairness and access to justice considerations outweigh finality, particularly in unopposed matters.