10 Jul 2019

The Industrial court has in April 2017 introduced new rules of court in an effort to make the court more accessible and improve its disposal rate. Responding to a question in Parliament, the Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo said among the rules introduced was the judicial case management, which placed the supervision and management of cases under a particular judge from the time of registration until completion.

Mr Mabeo said the objective was to provide a simple, quick and effective option in the dispute resolution system  which would bring litigation to a close in the shortest possible time, without compromising justice.

In addition the minister said in an endeavor to effectively implement the aforementioned reforms, judges and registrars were trained in judicial case management and court annexed mediation in January 2018 which enhanced disposal of court cases as it was evident from the statistics.

Since the introduction of the reforms, cases before the court have decreased from 7 827 during the 2016/17 financial year to 1100 as at end of June 2019, with the court’s turn-around time also being reduced from 24 months to the current 23 months.

MP for Nkange, Mr Edwin Batshu had asked the minister to apprise Parliament on measures in place to improve the rate at which cases were disposed at the industrial court in response to current complaints in the labour market that  it takes too long for labour cases to be disposed at the Industrial Court. ENDS