The Civil Engineering Industry Bargaining Council
The Bargaining Council for the Civil Engineering Industry (BCCEI) is a statutory body created under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) 66 of 1995 to provide for the co-regulation of stable and productive employment relations in the civil engineering industry. The council is an industry based forum of organised business and labour that regulates employment conditions and labour relations in the civil engineering industry. It provides the necessary administrative infrastructure and technical expertise to ensure effective collective bargaining, industry compliance, dispute resolution and social protection services.
The BCCEI may resolve disputes between Employers and Employees as well as between the Council and Members from a compliance perspective.
The Compliance Department is responsible for ensuring adherence to the BCCEI’s respective collective agreements and attending to queries that relate to these.
From inception, the BCCEI’s approach has been conciliatory with the aim of resolving concerns in the best interest of all parties, within the ambits of the law, and with the view of maintaining relationships to ensure that the employee/s and employer/s involved in a particular query will continue with their relationship after having concluded our investigation.
The BCCEI have a number of designated agents at your service, as empowered by the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995 to give effect to this obligation and assist all parties to the best of their abilities.
The main aim is to educate, mediate and ultimately ensure compliance to the collective agreements’ provisions as extended to non-parties by the Minister of Labour with due cognisance of the economic impact it might have on smaller firms and to ensure a fair outcome after having objectively weighed up all factors.
An independent exemptions board (IEB) as well as an independent exemptions appeal board (IEAB) consisting of highly experienced and qualified individuals, not employed by the BCCEI, to consider exemption applications pertaining to any condition contained in our respective collective agreements in accordance with the Councils’ constitution.
Dispute resolution between Employers and Employees is one of the functions of the BCCEI
In all dismissal cases referred to the Council’s DRC, the applicant and respondent must first explore a process of conciliation in an attempt to resolve the dispute amicably. Should a settlement not be reached the case shall proceed to arbitration, if requested by the applicant/referring party. The case will be arbitrated by an independent commissioner appointed by the Council.
In arbitration, the arbitrating commissioner will hear both sides of the dispute and based on the evidence led and arguments heard, as well as whether the dismissal was procedurally and/or substantively fair, issue an arbitration award.
Disputes that can be handled by the Council’s DRC are dismissals as a result of operational requirements, also known as retrenchments, incapacity relating to ill health or poor work performance, misconduct, issues that led to strike action or lock-out, refusal of an employer to bargain, unfair suspension, unfair employer conduct and disputes around the payment of severance pay. These would all be deemed to be statutory disputes. Please refer to the downloadable “Overview of the Dispute Resolution Process” graphic on this page for more information on where disputes should be referred.
The Dispute Resolution function of the Council is to ensure that dispute referrals are resolved timeously and efficiently in order to meet the accreditation requirements of the CCMA and maintain industrial peace within the industry. To this end, the Council appoints highly rated CCMA accredited commissioners and arbitrators who have a seasoned knowledge and an understanding of the Civil Engineering Industry.