The Shoe Doesn’t Fit: BATA and the Rights in Sections 198A, 198B and 198C of the Labour Relations Act

In 2014 the legislature introduced a suite of provisions providing additional protections for three categories of vulnerable employees: temporary employment service employees, employees on fixed term contracts and part-time employees. This note analyses Bata SA (Pty) Ltd v SA Clothing & Textile Workers Union obo Members & others where the Labour Appeal Court had to grapple with interpreting s 198D of the Labour Relations Act. It is argued that the court unnecessarily adopted a problematic interpretation which has the effect of undermining the purpose and efficacy of the provisions referred to above and proposals are made regarding how the current difficulty might be addressed.