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Johannesburg - Labour and bargaining organisations lack basic negotiating skills, labour department director general Nkosinathi Nhleko said on Thursday.
"The basic tact and art of negotiation is getting eroded within organisations. This is becoming a problem," Nhleko said in a speech on collective bargaining trends prepared for delivery at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA).
"I don't know whether we need to go to business schools and ask for refresher courses in human relations," he said.
Negotiators were preparing for the 2013 collective bargaining talks at a time when collective bargaining was under attack from a number of quarters, said Nhleko.
"There is nothing stopping the CCMA, before even negotiation season begins, to sit down with labour federations and warn them about negative trends emerging in the labour market."
He said the country was "skirting on a thin line" following the industrial action in which 44 people died - 34 of them at the hands of the police - near Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana in August.
South Africa had evolved in the past two decades, reaching major milestones in labour relations, and it would be sad if the country regressed, Nhleko said.
He called on the CCMA to take a "proactive approach" in the labour market before the negotiation season started.
SA Chamber of Mines employment relations executive Dr Elize Strydom expected this year's negotiations in the mining sector to be "the toughest ever".
She said there should be rules of engagement that had to be respected by all parties before formal wage negotiations began.
"We will respect the law and there should be repercussions if there is no such respect. We can no longer go on wild-cat strikes on an ad hoc basis," she said.
"There are laws that govern strikes, and we have to follow these laws."
