Johannesburg - Additional allocations to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) should be welcomed by the "entire" industrial community, a law firm said on Wednesday.
"The CCMA is the busiest labour dispute resolution centre in the world," Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc director Johan Botes said in reaction to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's 2013 budget speech.
"The last available figures [in the CCMA's 2012 annual report] indicate that a total of 649 new cases are referred to it every day."
He said a significant number of cases ended up in arbitration, the labour court or lock-outs.
"Any additional resources that could be allocated to the CCMA can only assist this organisation in further limiting the burden on the arbitration and court processes, and the risk of industrial action," he said.
Botes said appointing more commissioners to the CCMA would add "greatly" to limiting destructive trends in labour negotiations and industrial action.