Applicants, don’t bypass conciliation

On 21 February 2024 the Labour Court reminded parties that applicants who were not part of the conciliation process before the CCMA were not properly before the Labour Court.

At paragraph 82 of the judgment in Ngobeni and Others vs Interspray Durban CC the court held that “the list of applicants in the referral to the CCMA for conciliation contained fifty-six names, whereas the referral to this Court contained a new list of sixty-two names”.

It further transpired that only 39 applicants had participated in the conciliation. The court held that only the applicants that had participated in the conciliation were properly before the court which meant that “the rest of the applicants are not affected by the order made in this matter.”

In effect this means that the Labour Court dealt with the application before it only in respect of the applicants who had participated in the conciliation – the order did not apply to the rest.