Halton Cheadle () (Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town)
Abstract
The object of the paper is to identify the conceptual underpinnings of the labour law reforms of the 1990s, particularly the concept of regulated flexibility, and the changes to the labour market since then in order to review the performance of those reforms and to propose changes to more appropriately regulate that market. The main argument made in this paper is that the concept of regulated flexibility may be put to good use in extending protection to those who most need it and limiting intervention, particularly judicial intervention, where there is no appreciable gain in protection. The paper reviews the regulation each of the standard incidents of the employment relationship, from recruitment to termination, and finds that much of this regulation (in the form of an unfair labour practice remedy) escaped careful scrutiny in the reform process in the 1990s. The unfair labour practice remedy has, for the most part, become a charter of rights for middle and senior management while the most vulnerable workers are left without protection. Rather than intensifying regulation, labour law reform should be setting its sights on the extension of protection to those who most need it, namely employees in atypical employment. The paper makes various proposals to fine-tune the legal regulation of the labour market, in particular removing unnecessary regulation in the form of judicial interference in the employment relation and extending legislative protection to the most vulnerable.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit in its series Working Papers with number
9615.
Length: 57 pages Date of creation: Jun 2006 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, June 2006, pages 1-57 Handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:9615