Military Unions and the Right to Collective Bargaining: Insights from the South African Experience

Abstract

With the convergence of civilian and military employment practices, the debate on whether ‘soldiers’ may be granted labour rights is highly controversial. In Europe, Euromil has made it their mission to have the right of freedom of association to join trade unions extended to military personnel. In South Africa, the Constitutional Court granted military personnel this right, as well as the right to collective bargaining (it appeared). As has been the case elsewhere, this has not been embraced by military leadership, who prefer to manage employee relations from a classically unitarist perspective. This article highlights why armed forces have such an issue with trade unions and collective bargaining. Specific reference is made to the unique South African experience and the various court cases over the right to collective bargaining. To place the level of discontent among soldiers in perspective, reference is made to some empirical findings of South African officers and to recent international examples. In the final section, the debate is placed in context and some lessons from the South African case are reflected upon.