THE CORE BUSINESS OF THE ELRC SECRETARIAT

 

The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) is based in South Africa and serves the public education sector nationally. The ELRC is a statutory council, initially established by the Education Labour Relations Act of 1993 but now draws authority from the LRA of 1995. . The ELRC is primarily established with the aim of maintaining labour peace within  public education. This is achieved through a processes of  dispute prevention and dipute resolution.

 

The ELRC is integrally involved in initiatives to prevent disputes from arising within the public education sector. This is achieved through facilitating the process of constructive collective bargaining between the educator unions and the department of education as the employer. The ELRC also conducts various workshops to increase the level of awareness and understanding of sound labour relations procedures.

 

Disputes which arise are generally resolved through the processes of conciliation and arbitration. Whilst the bargaining council is guided by its own constitution in resolving disputes, the framework for this is governed by the various labour legislations of South Africa viz.  Labour Relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Education Labour Relations Act, South African Schools Act

 

 

INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE THIS CORE BUSINESS INCLUDE:

• to provide efficient and effective dispute resolution procedures
• to develop an effective dispute prevention strategy
• to promote communication between the parties;
• to provide Human Resources Development for all staff members;
• to provide research services to parties on professional and education labour relations issues;
• to interact with stakeholders on behalf of Council; and,
• to assist in the implementation of resolutions and the enforcement of agreements and awards.

 

THE COUNCIL CONSISTS OF:

 

Employer

 

Representing the state as an employer is the collective made up of the Provincial Departments of Education co-ordinated by the National Department of Education.

 

Trade Unions

 

CTU-SADTU

South Africa Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU)
Cape Teacher's Professional Association (CTPA)

CTU-ITU

National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA)

Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU)
National Teachers Union (NATU)

Professional Educators Union (PEU)

Public Servants Association (PSA)

 

CORE SERVICES OF THE ELRC

 

Negotiation Support Services

 

The ELRC facilitates negotiations between the unions and departments of education at national and provincial level.

Apart from the staff at the national office, there are 9 provincial secretaries, with administrative suuport, who administer the affairs of the Provincial chambers.There are approximately 350 000 educators who fall within the scope of the ELRC. The ELRC is funded through levies paid by educators and equal contributions made by the departments of education

 

Dispute Resolution Services

 

Much progress has been made in the development and fine-tuning of the Council’s dispute resolution mechanism in the past decade. It has been transformed into an effective specialist bargaining council in the education sector capable of addressing its own unique contextual needs.

 

Conciliation

 

Conciliation is a voluntary process in which the services of an acceptable third party, appointed by the Council, is utilised to assist disputing parties to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution.

 

Arbitration

 

When conciliation fails, the dispute is referred to arbitration through which a panelist adjudicates on the matter.  In the arbitration proceeding, parties to the dispute jointly ask an acceptable third party to hear their respective cases and then to make an award, which they undertake in advance to accept as binding on them.

 

Con/Arb

 

The introduction of a con/arb process in relation to Unfair Labour Practice disputes (Promotion, demotion and provision of benefits) provides for the appointment of a panelist who simultaneously conciliates and immediately thereafter arbitrates a dispute or a number of disputes with identical features.

 

 

 

VISION STATEMENT

To strive towards the continuous maintenance and promotion of labour peace, accomplished in the spirit of parties to the Council working together and contributing towards the transformation and development of a quality South African Public Education sector.

MISSION STATEMENT

To be the leading provider of quality, effective, efficient and non-partisan administration and facilitative mechanisms for Labour Peace and for the development of a quality South African Public Education sector.

ORGANISATIONAL VALUES 

The ELRC is guided by the following Batho Pele (People First) principles and values:

• We value people that we serve and those with whom we work;
• We commit ourselves to be fair, ethical, trustworthy and accountable in all of our work;
• We endeavour to be customer-service oriented, striving to meet the needs of our clients;
• We aim to work together as a team, encouraging co-operation both from ourselves and others around us;
• We strive to achieve and maintain excellence; always meeting the highest standards of performance at all levels of service outputs and professionalism in all of our work.
• We strive to promote communication between ourselves and our clients;
• We commit to the development and capacity building of our staff through learning and growth;
• We encourage innovation as a means to continually address new issues and seek better ways to achieve our goals.
• We commit to our work and to the vision and mission of the ELRC