Department of Home Affairs v Public Servants Association and Others

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) proposed changes to employees’ working hours to introduce Saturday work in February 2015. DHA maintained that the proposal was subject only to consultation, not collective bargaining. Public sector unions opposed the changes, contending that they constituted a matter of mutual interest requiring collective bargaining. When DHA implemented the changes unilaterally, the unions referred a dispute of mutual interest to the General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council for conciliation. At conciliation, DHA raised a jurisdictional objection, arguing the dispute was not a matter of mutual interest but a managerial prerogative concerning work practices. The conciliator upheld this objection. On review, the Labour Court set aside the conciliator’s ruling and ordered that the dispute be conciliated. DHA’s subsequent applications for leave to appeal were refused, culminating in an application to the Constitutional Court.

The application for leave to appeal was dismissed. The application by the Department of Public Service and Administration to intervene was dismissed with costs.

The case clarifies South African labour law by affirming that all disputes concerning matters of mutual interest must be referred to conciliation, regardless of the rights/interest dispute distinction. It limits the role of conciliators to facilitating conciliation rather than making jurisdictional or classificatory determinations, thereby reinforcing access to statutory dispute-resolution mechanisms under the LRA.