The CCMA has three years to redraft a rule that limits legal representation in certain proceedings, says a Financial Mail report. In the meantime, with the backing of its social partners (business, labour and the state), the CCMA has appealed the decision handed down by the North Gauteng High Court in October that found the rule unreasonable. The CCMA’s rule 25 says parties are not allowed legal representation in conciliation matters or in arbitration proceedings about the fairness of dismissals for misconduct or incapacity. The court finding follows a challenge by the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, which took the CCMA, the Labour Minister and the Justice Minister to court to argue the rule was unfair and unconstitutional.

According to the FM report, CCMA director Nerine Kahn believes the matter will go all the way to the Constitutional Court. ‘The judge does not think the rule is reasonable,’ Kahn is reported to have said. ‘He thinks the way legal representation is allowed in some cases but not others is random.’

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