About Labour Law Academy

The Labour Law Academy has been established in order to provide immediate access to a comprehensive range of material providing knowledge and skills regarding labour law and labour relations in South Africa.

The prime aims are to help anyone who is involved in human resources and labour relations whether from a management or union perspective to become professional, apply the principles of fairness and bring about industrial justice in South African workplaces.

The courses are based on current case law from which the key principles are derived and blended with years of experience to make dry, difficult law accessible and approachable.

What we don’t do

We do not offer formal qualifications via a SETA or other institutions.

The LLA provides training just when you need it. For example, you have a workplace incident about say a possible conflict of interest. You can access the LLA site for a short but comprehensive course which will assist you – whether you are an HR manager, a shop steward or union official, an accused employee, or chair of a disciplinary hearing.

Or take another situation: you are preparing for an arbitration and you need to present hearsay evidence as part of your case. The LLA course on hearsay evidence explains to you how to do this – and explains how an arbitrator should assess such evidence. Just in time, when you need it knowledge and skills.

The Labour Law Academy difference

What is so different about what the Labour Law Academy does, and why should you subscribe or register? The difference is this: The Labour Law Academy does not offer qualifications: it offers knowledge and skills.

You could do a qualification with the many training providers out there which offer similar sounding material. Or you could even do a degree course at a tertiary institution. But here is the issue: When I lectured the labour law course which is part of the LLB programme at a university this is what I found: students are required to follow material in ‘the book’. That material covered a wide range of information.

Then students are tested and examined on the material. I found that both the students and the university were not interested in anything I told them that was not in the book, the usual question being: Is this in the test/ exam? So the result is that students learn like a parrot and do not learn to think. And what they learn is information, and only a tiny bit of that information is examined on and even the pass rate is 40%! They are not taught to think, or apply that information. The same applies to the way training in labour relations is done – you attend a course on ‘chairing a disciplinary hearing’ and after that you are supposed to be able to go out and actually chair a hearing.

The Labour Law Academy does not offer qualifications: it offers knowledge and skills. By having a qualification whether from a university or training institution you are assumed to be able to actually do what you have been qualified in. But the reality is that the gap between a person with a qualification and a person with experience is massive.

The Labour Law Academy is unique, provides cost effective and immediate access to a comprehensive list of labour law topics, content which is properly researched, and conveyed in a practical and accessible way just when it is needed, and which can be applied fairly and consistently by any party whether from the perspective of an employee, a union, an employer or chairperson or arbitrator.

Unique

The Labour Law Academy is unique because the access it provides is just when you need it. Most training takes place either before the workplace incident or issue a Practitioner is faced with arises, or after the training has taken place – in which case the probability is that just about everything learned at the training workshop has been forgotten. The training provided by the Labour Law Academy is available at the click of a mouse.

The Labour Law Academy is also unique because it uses an online platform. This means that one can stop, pause, rewind and repeat the training, something which is not possible to do in the usual training environment.

Furthermore, one can cover the material again in order to refresh and revive the knowledge and skills gained. The training can be accessed by one or many employees and they can do so from their workstations. The courses can be done in easily achieved bite sized chunks as modules are no longer than 15 minutes, or in longer servings – it all depends on the time each employee can dedicate to the training. All that is required is a computer and an internet connection – a printer may assist since the workbooks provided with each course may be printed out. All of this makes training cost effective.

Finally, a record of the degree to which the knowledge and skills have been acquired by any student who has  completed a course or programme can be accessed.

Comprehensive

The training offered is comprehensive in that all aspects of labour law are covered.

Whereas other training providers and consultants – let alone some legal firms – provide generalised training on common matters such as ‘chairing a disciplinary hearing’, the LLA provides information and training on specific issues which are required to chair a disciplinary hearing. These include how to deal with preliminary objections, postponement applications, and representation disputes as well as training in the law which makes up the particular allegation. Unit standard aligned courses available in a packaged form from some training providers are usually generalised, often out of date, and often fail to represent best practice or the current legal situation.

Immediate access

The training is delivered via E-learning in order to facilitate immediate access to current information. The advantage is that a practitioner who is asked, for example, to represent a fellow employee in a hearing who is charged with insubordination can find out what possible defences might be raised against this allegation.

All you do is search for the course on insubordination, and either download the article or do the short online course explaining the law regarding insubordination –or do both.

Available at the click of a mouse

The further advantage of E-learning is that it is available when required. The idea that a company sends a group of managers on a ‘chairing a disciplinary hearing’ course and then four months later one of those managers is required to chair a hearing [and by then has
forgotten anything he may actually have
learnt!], is over.

Perspectives

The training is presented: –

• From both employer and employee/union point of view. A perusal of any article on which a course is based will show that this is the case. In the training it is often useful and helpful to give a manager the role of a shop steward, and a shop steward the role of a manager: perspectives change views.
• Taking into account the different contexts and forums in which the dispute may occur – an internal workplace disciplinary hearing, arbitration at the CCMA or bargaining council, or private arbitration. Mediation of workplace disputes regarding disputes around sexual harassment or bullying, and facilitation of retrenchment is also covered.
• From the view of a chairperson or arbitrator who assess evidence, as well as from a representative of an organisation or company and that of
  the employee and union.

Detailed, complex issues made accessible and practical

A great deal of labour law is complicated. There are two reasons for this: firstly, there is a history of training and advice given by persons who are neither qualified or experienced in labour law. Consultants and legal practitioners give advice which is not based on legal principle or precedent but based on what will earn more fees; union officials deal with a dispute between an employee and his employer as if it is the ground on which a socialist victory may arise instead of considering what the best interest of the employee is.

This is not always the case of course, but the fact is there is a great deal of misinformation and bad practice in the South African workplace. The training and information provided by LLA is aimed at providing a remedy to this situation.

The second reason is that there has been a general failure to educate South Africans in the principles of the Constitution. For that reason, the Constitution is given pride of place in this website, and an attempt is made to always refer back to the Constitution.

Professional

The approach to labour law and labour relations is to professionalise the field. That means that there is constant reference to and application of the values of honesty, equity and Constitutional principles.

Flexible

The training presented by the Labour Law Academy is flexible in that courses can be done on a stand alone basis, or as part of a larger programme. For example, a Practitioner such as an official of an employer organisation may wish to present evidence in an arbitration which has been illegally obtained. The Practitioner could access the short course on this form of evidence and learn how to present such evidence [or oppose the admission of such evidence] for that arbitration. The Practitioner could also complete the program on the law of evidence – and access the short course afterwards to refresh his understanding.

Some definitions of words used

“Course” – means a stand-alone training course on a specific matter.
“Knowledge” – means sourcing relevant and appropriate information around an issue and understanding it. It is knowing what information is needed and understanding that information.
“Skill” – means the ability to think independently and applying knowledge in a fair and consistent manner.
“Programmes”- means a number of courses linked together covering a general subject. An example of a programme is “Forms of misconduct: law, skills and practice” [of which derivative misconduct is just one part].
“Practitioner”- means any person who is involved in a labour dispute, including managers, and company representatives, union officials, union members, employees and advisers to any of these.

How do you do a course?

You do a course by simply following the links either here or there and then clicking on the title of a course. You can then see if the course is one you would like or need to do, and find out more about it by reading through the course description. You can also view the course content. To gain access to the course content and actually do the course you need to follow the purchase process which is the same as buying anything off the internet.

This means – and this is key – you and your workforce do not have to attend a class or a conference or workshop – you do the course from where you are, and at any time, and in any place that suits you.

This has the advantage that you can pause, repeat, and redo the course. Most courses have a workbook which assists you to remember the content and go through the slides and other material.

You can then complete a test to check your understanding of the material covered.

You can do a course when needed, attend a series of webinars or subscribe to the Academy for constant access to all courses.

The great thing about using the Labour Law Academy as a resource is that you can get the knowledge and skills when you need them. We have all been to conferences, or attended training to upskill ourselves or staff. And we all know that you’ve forgotten just about everything you supposedly learnt within a day or two!

Our courses can be done and done again. Or, instead of doing a whole course, you can check out just one aspect that you need assistance with or clarification about.

Help from the Labour Law Academy is never far away- just go onto your smart phone and there it is!