The crippling strikes South Africa has seen in the platinum, metal and other industries has led to renewed powers of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to resolve protracted strikes.

The CCMA now has the power to intervene in strikes without the consent of affected parties, it announced on Monday.

Director of the CCMA Nerine Kahn said in the past the CCMA could only intervene with the consent of affected parties. This has effectively left affected parties to resolve disputes without the CCMA’s intervention.

“We were often criticised as the CCMA for not stepping in time, the problem was that the law hamstringed us as far as stepping in,” Kahn said.

The new found powers of the CCMA come into effect from April 1.

“The law has given the appointed director of the CCMA in consultation with stakeholders in that sector [power] to try force the parties into some kind of mediation,” she added.

The new powers of the CCMA are part of the Department of Labour’s amendment to the Employment Equity Act, which came into effect on August 1 2014.

The amended Act makes provisions to bolster transparency and improve the efficiency in monitoring employee rights, eradicating unfair discrimination and promoting equality in the workplace.

The CCMA, with its new strike intervention powers together with other amendments to the Act, anticipates “very high case load”. It had 165 000 cases in 2014 relating to employment equity.

“The Department of Labour with the Treasury has given us additional resources and made sure we have enough resources to make sure we can implement the amendments. We are comfortable to implement the amendments,” Kahn said.

The CCMA has been given a R60 million war chest to deal with employment equity issues and has appointed commissioners.

“We have targeted specialist commissioners to be in charge of various employment equity issues,” Kahn noted.

The most controversial change to the Act is the value of the fines imposed by the Department of Labour for transgressions of the Act. Fines, according to the Department, could range from 2% to 10% of an organisation’s turnover or alternatively a substantially increased rand equivalent.

The big concern is that the fines may be viewed as disproportionate to the offence committed.

“The fines have been moved to regulation in terms of the Act and the employment equity commission, which is an advisory to the Minister of Labour, is doing a lot of work on the fairness of fines.

“We are a few weeks into January and cannot say of the challenges [since implementing the Act]. But there will be challenges going forward,” said Kahn.

Another concern is the impact the amended Act will have on small businesses. Under the previous Act, small businesses reported on employment equity compliance every two years, the new Act calls for annual reporting. This is said to add pressure to small businesses with additional administration burdens.