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Industrial Conciliation Acts 1924/1937/1956 and amendments (1979 etc.), later Labour Relations Act (pre-1995)

Literature › Primary sources

Kind legislation gazette
Producer Union/Republic of South Africa Parliament
Coverage 1924-1991
Works using it 26

Debates

Debate Works
Black trade unions: growth, wage effects, Wiehahn and strategy 17
The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion 9
Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth? 6
Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves 5
Did the apartheid economy fail? Growth, productivity, investment and the post-1970s crisis 2
Why apartheid ended: reform, transition and elite bargaining 2
Sanctions, disinvestment and the anti-apartheid movement 2
Unemployment: causes, measurement and labour market institutions 2
Racial wage gaps, wage convergence and wage determination 2
Worker consciousness, strikes and conflict on the mines and shop floor 2
Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry 1
White electoral politics, delimitation and party systems 1
Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control 1
The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation 1
The state and capital: instrumentalism, autonomy and fractions of capital 1

Works using this source

Work As cited Period How used
Bendix (1989) Basic Conditions of Employment Act No. 3 of 1982; Wage Act No. 5 of 1957; Machinery and Occupational Safety Act No. 6 of 1983; Manpower Training Act No. 56 of 1981; Unemployment Insurance Act No. 30 of 1966; Workmen's Compensation Act No. 30 of 1941 1941-1983 Statutes summarised to describe the legislative framework of employment conditions.
Bendix (1989) Labour Relations Act No. 28 of 1956 as amended (1979, 1982, 1988 Amendment Act) 1956-1988 Primary legal text analysed for bargaining, dispute-settlement, unfair labour practice and strike provisions.
Budeli et al. (2008) Industrial Conciliation Act 11 of 1924 and its amendment (Act 24 of 1930), the consolidated ICA of 1937, and the Wage Act 27 of 1925 1924-1937 Used to show statutory recognition of unions, the exclusion of blacks from the definition of 'employee', and the dual system of industrial relations.
Budeli et al. (2008) Industrial Conciliation Act 28 of 1956 (later Labour Relations Act) and amendments of 1979-1991 1956-1991 Source for the racial definition of 'employee', the ban on multi-racial unions, the freedom of association and anti-victimisation provisions (ss 66, 78), the Wiehahn-era amendments and the 1988 unfair labour practice regime.
Coupe (1995) Industrial Conciliation Act 1956 (and 1961 amendment), Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act 1953, Apprenticeship Act 1944; ICISEM Main Agreements 1968 and 1970 1944-1970 Establish the statutory framework of job reservation, racial union segregation and industrial council agreements.
Crush (1989b) Industrial conciliation legislation (1981 inclusion of migrants) and Chamber of Mines 1982 announcement permitting union access 1981-1982 Establishes that legal and company barriers to organizing migrant miners were removed, creating the test case.
De Clercq (1979) Amended Industrial Conciliation Act of September 1979 1979 Shows the limited extension of union rights to urban Africans and exclusion of migrants etc.
De Clercq (1979) Bantu Labour Settlement of Disputes Act 1953 and Industrial Conciliation Act 1956 1953-1956 Shows state strategy to channel African workers into in-plant committees and enforce racial union splits.
De Clercq (1979) Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924 and Wage Act 1924 Shows the legal institutionalisation of racial divisions in industrial relations.
Duncan (1989) Industrial Conciliation Act 1924, Wage Act 1925, Native Labour Regulation Act 1911, and War Measures 9 and 145 of 1942 1911-1942 Describes the legal machinery of conciliation, arbitration and control under which the departments operated and the strike was declared illegal.
Gould (1981) Industrial Conciliation Act 1956 (No. 28) and Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act 1979 (No. 94), as reprinted in de Kock 1924-1979 Statutory text on registration, mixed unions, strikes, industrial councils, Industrial Court, job reservation; basis for the legal analysis.
Hirschsohn (1996) Labour Relations Amendment Act 1988 and 1979 labour law amendments (Industrial Conciliation Act, Industrial Court) 1979-1988 The legal reforms whose unintended consequences are the core of the argument, described rather than directly cited.
Hofmeyr and Lucas (1998) Industrial Conciliation Act of 1956 and Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act of 1979 1956-1979 Provides the institutional setting: the 1956 Act barred multiracial unions and the 1979 amendment extended the definition of employee to Africans, enabling union growth.
Lemon (1982) Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act no. 94 of 1979 1979 Cited to show restrictions placed on black union membership despite the Wiehahn recommendations.
Lemon (1984c) Labour legislation of the 1920s (Industrial Conciliation Act 1924, Wages Act 1925, Mines and Works Amendment Act 1926) and job reservation 1956 1924-1956 Describes statutory racial job protection as the original principle of labor-market control.
Lewis (1990) 1979 industrial relations legislation granting legal recognition to black trade unions 1979 Presented as the event that made industrial relations machinery a central concern of labor history and labor studies.
Lichtenstein (2004) South African labour legislation: Industrial Conciliation Acts 1924, 1937, 1956; Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act 1953; Suppression of Communism Act 1950 1924-1956 Statutes defining African exclusion from 'employee' status, mixed-union bans and suppression of left union leaders.
Macun and Frost (1994) Industrial Conciliation Act 1979 and Labour Relations Act 1981 1979-1981 Legal reforms extending union rights to all workers, taken to improve reliability of membership data and to facilitate growth.
Macun and Wood (2001) Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act (no. 94 of 1979) and Labour Relations Amendment Act of 1981 1979-1981 Establishes the legal reforms that opened registration and collective bargaining to African unions.
Maree (1985) Industrial Conciliation Act (1956; amended 1979 and 1981, renamed Labour Relations Act) and Bantu Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act 1953 1953-1981 Defines the dualistic industrial relations system and the legal changes in 1979 and 1981 toward registration and control of African unions.
Mariotti (2008) Legislation: Industrial Conciliation Act 1956 and other labour/apartheid statutes (Appendix III timeline) 1911-1970 Timeline of pre-apartheid and apartheid legislation establishing the job reservation framework.
Mariotti (2010) Industrial Conciliation Act 1924 and 1956 (incl. Section 77 Industrial Tribunal) 1924, 1956 Establishes the institutional mechanism of industry agreements and job reservation determinations that restricted African employment.
Mohamed (1991) Industrial Conciliation Act 1956 and Industrial Conciliation Act No. 94 of 1979 (Section 3); Apprenticeship Act 1944; Black Building Workers Act 1951; Suppression of Communism Act 1950; Sabotage Act 1962; Training Act 1990 1944-1990 Legal framework for mixed unions, job reservation, apprenticeship and training that conditioned SAEWA's strategy.
Moll (1993a) Industrial Conciliation Act 1924 and Industrial Conciliation Act of October 1979 (with amendments); Wiehahn Commission (1977) 1924-1979 Describes the legal framework of industrial councils, racial exclusion of African unions, and the legalization of African unions after 1979.
Moll (1993c) Industrial Conciliation Act 1924 and Industrial Conciliation Act of October 1979 (and amendments) 1924-1984 Describes the legal framework: industrial councils, exclusion of Africans from the definition of employee, and legalization of African unions in 1979.
Moll (1996a) Industrial Conciliation Act (1979 amendments) and ergo omnes extension provisions 1920s-1979 and after Background on the legal framework allowing the Minister of Labor to extend IC agreements and Africans to join registered unions.
Nattrass and Seekings (2012a) Industrial Conciliation Acts of 1924, 1930 and 1937, 1925 Wage Act, 1923 Natives (Urban Areas) Act, 1911 Native Labour Regulation Act 1911-1937 Establishes the legal origins of industrial councils, extensions, and exclusion/inclusion of African workers.
Roth (1995a) South African legislation barring recognition of African trade unions not specified Used to explain why the Chamber of Mines did not recognise African unions.
Schultz and Mwabu (1998a) Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924 and the Industrial Council system 1924-1993 Institutional background on how Industrial Councils set and extend wage floors to nonunion firms and workers, motivating the interpretation of union and nonunion wage gaps.
Schultz and Mwabu (1998b) South African Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924 1924 Describes the legal framework for Industrial Councils whose agreements could be extended to nonunion workers and firms, motivating the spillover and understatement arguments.