The legislative framework impacting on HRM in South Africa

Résumé du document

No organization exists in isolation and HRM at the organizational level must be contextualized in terms of the environment external to the organization", say Swanepoel et al (2005: 75). An organization lives in a social, economic, political, legal and technological environment. In this way, it is interesting to analyze how legislative aspects impact HRM in South African organizations. Many sources of law govern the employment relationships in South Africa. The major ones are: the common law, the contract of employment, various collective agreements and statutes entered into between employers and trade unions, international labor standards, traditions, customs and workplace practices (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 98). In this context, we must also remember the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. We will discuss here the implications of constitutional law and common law for HRM in South Africa.

Extraits

[...] In this way, it is interesting to analyse how the legislative aspects impact on HRM in South African organisations. Many sources of law govern the employment relationships in South Africa. The major are: the common law, the contract of employment, various collective agreements and statutes entered into between employers and trade unions, international labour standards, traditions, customs and workplace practices (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 98). Do not forget the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. We will discuss here the implications of constitutional law and common law for HRM in South Africa The implications of constitutional law for HRM in South Africa The Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, guarantees fundamentals rights that no one (including Parliament) can violate because these rights are synonymous of democratic values such as human dignity, equality and freedom. [...]

[...] This contract is called locatio conductio operatum : it is a reciprocal agreement between an employer and an employee in terms of which an employee puts his services at the disposal of the employer usually for an indefinite period, at an agreed remuneration and in such a manner that the employer exercises control over the employee and supervises the rendition of this services” (Swanepoel 1992: 1). According to Swanepoel et al. (2005: 100), there must be a “reciprocal agreement” and the “element of control is essential”. Furthermore, the 2002 Amendments Act 11 of 2002 to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act explain the conditions for which a person is considered an “employee” or not, by “codifying the rebuttable common law presumptions in this regard” (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 100). [...]

[...] London: Prentice Hall. Nadler, L. & Nadler, Z Developing Human Resource, 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Swanepoel, JPA Introduction to Labour Law, 3rd ed. Johannesburg: Lexicon. Swanepoel, B., Erasmus, B., van Wyk, M. & Shenk, H South African Human Resource Management, 3rd ed. Cape Town: Juta. [...]

[...] These are: “There must be consensus between the contracting parties regarding the content of the agreement and the intention to contract; Both parties must have contractual capacity: Performance in terms of the contract must be possible at the time of the conclusion of the contract; The contract must be lawful in the sense that it must not offend the prevailing goods morals of society; and While formalities, such as reducing the contract to writing, are generally not required, in those cases where compliance with formalities is a prerequisite for the validity of particular contract, those formalities must be complied with” (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 101). Last, both parties to the employment contract have rights and duties. In general, the rights of one party represent the duties of the other party (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 101). For instance, when an employee's duty is enter and remain in service”, the employer's duty is receive the worker into service and to retain him/her” (Swanepoel et al. [...]

[...] Because the organisation performs in a legal and political environment, some rules must be applied in the management of employees. In this way, the constitutional law and the common law have some implications in the HRM in South Africa. Bibliography Ferris, G., Rosen, S. & Barnum, D Human Resource Management Handbook. Massachusetts: Blackwell. Dolan, SL & Schuler, RS Personnel and Human Resource Management in Canada.New York: John Wiley & Sons. Johnson, G. & Scholes, K Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. 6th ed. [...]