BUILDING INDUSTRY BARGAINING COUNCIL | CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

The Building Industry Bargaining Council
(Cape of Good Hope)

A Brief History

The BIBC has been operating for more than 80 years. It originated in the 1920’s under the Inspector of Labour as “The Cape Peninsula Building Trades Joint Board” and had as its logo “Fair wages and Conditions”. In October 1925, the Board was converted to “The Local and District Committee of the National Industrial Council of the Building Industry of South Africa”. In 1995, the Labour Relations Act created a new legislative framework and renamed Industrial Councils as Bargaining Councils.

Our Legal Basis

The Building Industry Bargaining Council (Cape of Good Hope) is a sector and area-specific Bargaining Council created in terms of the Labour Relations Act (1995). The Labour Relations Act (LRA) provides that employer and employee representative organizations within an industry or area can enter into collective agreements covering “any areas of mutual interest” and if they are sufficiently representative of the industry, the parties can approach the Minister of Labour to gazette these agreements and extend them to bind non-parties as well. The collective agreement is negotiated between the parties on an annual basis and once signed, is normally gazetted by the Minister with effect from 01 November each year. Thereafter, all persons engaged in the building industry within the demarcated area of the Building Industry Bargaining Council (BIBC) are required to comply with the terms of the collective agreement, whether they were signatories to the agreement or not. Although the BIBC is a creature of statute, it is not sponsored by the State and it is funded by levies paid equally by employers and employees.

Our Main Functions

Today, the BIBC’s four essential functions are:

To offer a forum to negotiate a collective agreement between employer and employee representative organizations on an annual basis
To administer the collective agreement entered into between employer and employee representative bodies in the building industry. The agreement covers standard terms and conditions of employment e.g rates of pay, benefits, holidays etc
To resolve labour disputes in the building industry rather than referring them to the CCMA
To administer social benefit funds for employees (e.g. retirement, medical aid, sick pay and holiday pay)

Our area of operation

The area of jurisdiction covers an area of approximately 200sq km extending from Gordon’s Bay along the Hottentots Holland mountains to Malmesbury and including the entire Peninsula, to Cape Point. In this area, any person engaged in building activities is required to be registered with the BIBC and to comply with the collective agreement. Currently, there are approximately 50,000 people active in the building industry in this area.

The size of our organization

The BIBC consists of 18 part-time councilors (including a Chairman and Deputy Chairman) who meet monthly. Employer and employee organizations have equal representation on the Council. There is a Secretary and staff of approximately 65 people.