On South African Labour Law

South Africa is a strategic partner of our country towards Africa in the fieldsof trading, communicating and cooperating. In the recent years, our country paysgreat attention to the study of South African legal system. However, there are fewresearching achievements about systematically, fully and deeply studying thematters of South African labour law. From the present studying conditions in andout of our country, foreign studies concentrate on the specialized study andcomparative study of South African labour law, while our country is apt to do someresearches on the specialized study of South African labour law, such as, collectivebargaining, workplace forum, conciliation, mediation and arbitration system, and soon, and pays little attention to the wholeness study and comparative study. So, wecan say that the study of South African labour law is still the weakest research fieldin our country, but also it is an academic frontier problem. Therefore, we shouldstudy systematically, fully and deeply about the issues of South African labour law,such as the historical development, the sources of labour law, its legal system andthe basic legal institutions and so on; summarize the main features and functions ofSouth African labour law; and display its revelations and reference values for ourcountry’s labour legislation.By doing so, it can not only make up the shortcomingsof specifically studying the African law, but also has the important meanings for thereal life.The Article does the research on South African labour law systematically fromthe following four aspects. Firstly, it takes the hybrid legal system of South Africaas the research perspective, and then takes the viewpoint that the labour relationsare the previous conditions of producing and developing the labour law as the studyfoundation. The article will study the historical formation and development ofSouth African labour law from three time stages, such as the origin stage, theformation stage and the development stage. During the primitive society period, asthe labour power and the production materials are not divided, the labour lawdoesn’t has formation premise, even it is in the colonial society period, there didexist some labour relations, they were regulated by the regulations transplantedfrom the colonial countries, such as Holland and Britain, and the legislations issuedat that time, such as the Ordinance of1March1841and the Master and Servant Act 15of1856, these legislations laid the foundation for South African labour law. Asthe making and issuing of Labour Disputes Prevention Act of1909, IndustrialConciliation Act of1924, Industrial Conciliation Act of1956(which was later calledLabour Relations Act of1956), and Labour Relations Amendment Act of1988, thusthe labour legal system which had the feature of racism was formed in South Africa.When new South Africa was established in1994, the new government repealed a lotof racism labour legislations and issued many new labour policies and made newlabour laws or amended some out-dated labour laws, therefore a new pattern andharmonious labour relations appeared in new South Africa. These new labour lawswere as follows: Labour Relations Act of1995, Basic Conditions of EmploymentAct of1997, and Employment Equity Act of1998, and so on, in these laws, LabourRelations Act of1995is an act made for collective labour relations.Secondly, when studying the history of labour law, the article will talk aboutthe sources of labour law, such as Roman-Dutch Law, English Law, the statutes, thejudicial precedent, custom and international labour legislations. After that, it willanalyze the legal system of labour law through the theory of function mode oflabour law, and find that the labour legal system of South Africa includes the labourrelations legal system, the employment legal system, and labour protection legalsystem.Thirdly, the article will discuss the basic legal institutions. The South Africanlegal system is of more perfect, the article will choose certain legal institutions forstudy, such as collective bargaining, workplace forum, dismissal, labour disputeresolution, employment contract, wages, work time and labour rest, occupationalhealth and safety, labour monitoring, and unemployment insurance.Finally, the article will sum up the characteristics, the functions and thereference value of South Africa labour law. The characteristics are as follows, thespecific features of hybrid legal system, following the judicial precedent, and thecomplicated regulation object. The functions are promoting the economy and thedevelopment of human rights, and protecting the society. When discussing thereference values of the South African labour law, the article takes our country’sweak labour fields as the comparative study objects, such as collective relations, dismissal and labour disputes resolution. The article will study the similar systemsof South Africa, and find their reference values for our country’s labour legislation.