Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and Others v Chamber of Mines of South Africa and Others

In 2013 the Chamber of Mines, acting on behalf of major gold mining companies, negotiated a wage and conditions-of-employment collective agreement with unions that together represented a majority of employees across the employers’ operations (NUM, Solidarity and UASA). AMCU participated in negotiations but rejected the final offer and was not a party to the agreement. The agreement expressly extended its terms, including a prohibition on strikes over regulated issues, to all employees of the companies, including non-members of the signatory unions. At certain individual mines AMCU was the majority union and sought to strike. The Chamber obtained an interdict in the Labour Court preventing the strike on the basis that the agreement bound AMCU members under section 23(1)(d) of the Labour Relations Act (LRA). AMCU’s appeals to the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court failed, and it approached the Constitutional Court.

Leave to appeal was granted, but the appeal was dismissed. The collective agreement validly bound AMCU members and the interdict against the strike stood.

The case is a leading authority on majoritarianism in South African labour law and on the interpretation of “workplace” under the LRA. It confirms the constitutionality of section 23(1)(d) and affirms that collective agreements concluded by majority unions may bind non-party employees, even limiting the right to strike, in order to promote orderly collective bargaining.