SALLR POPIA obligations

SALLR collects judgments handed down by the various courts in South Africa, as well as arbitration awards and rulings handed down by the CCMA and various bargaining councils in South Africa.  This information is publicly available.  SALLR collects such information for the specific purpose of publishing such judgments, awards and rulings, either in hardcopy format or, alternatively, in electronic format on various platforms, including, but not limited to, Google.

SALLR undertakes various internal and external exercises to ensure that the information so collected is relevant and up-to-date.

SALLR has also undertaken various security measures in order to protect the information that it is collecting and publishing as indicated above.

Section 10 of POPIA

In terms of section 10 of POPIA, personal information may only be processed if given the purpose for which it is processed, it is adequate, relevant and not excessive.

As indicated above, all information collected by SALLR is information that is publicly available.  Also, as indicated above, the purpose of collecting such information is to publish such judgments, arbitration awards and rulings, etc, on various platforms and in various forms, such as hard copy.

Taking the above purpose for which such personal information is processed into account, SALLR has therefore also ensured that:

• it is adequate – the names of the parties, the nature of the dispute(s) as well as findings appear from the relevant judgment, award or ruling that is publicly available

• it is relevant – as a minimum, the case number identifies the relevant matter, firstly, for the forum having entertained the matter, secondly, for the parties involved in the matter and, thirdly, for theSALLRcommunity and general public having expressed an interest in the matter

• is not excessive – section 1 of POPIA contains the definition of ‘personal information’. Sub-item (h) suggests that the use of the name of a person with other personal information, such as a telephone number, address, email address, etc, falls within the definition of ‘personal information’ and is thereby protected by POPIA. By simply using the names of the parties and the case number,SALLRis minimising the display of personal information. In line with such approach,SALLRhas undertaken the mammoth task of deleting such abovementioned personal information, such as telephone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, etc

Arbitration awards and rulings front covers

In line with its obligations to comply with POPIA, the CCMA has made the decision that, from 1 July 2021, arbitration awards and rulings front covers will no longer include the contact details of the parties.

Furthermore, also in compliance with its POPIA obligations, the CCMA has adopted the approach that, when it is asked for a copy of an award or ruling, pre-dating 1 July 2021, it will manually remove the contact details of the parties from the front cover. 

In line with the above approach, SALLR has adopted the following process:

• it has utilised software to electronically remove the contact details of the parties from the front cover of arbitration awards and rulings of both the CCMA and the various bargaining councils from which it collects such information

• it has further embarked on a process where it has engaged various security measures to place in protection the personal information in its possession pertaining to the said parties

• as from 1 July 2021, it will publish such arbitration awards and rulings’ front covers received from the CCMA without the contact details of the parties, but, nevertheless, will ‘run’ its abovementioned software in this regard to further attempt to ensure that only the minimum amount of personal information of the parties is within the public domain. This approach is also followed in respect of bargaining council awards and rulings

Personal undertaking

Each and every member of the SALLR team undertakes to comply, to the fullest extent, with POPIA.  However, we are also just human and, if indeed private personal information is disclosed, despite our best efforts, we undertake to correct same with immediate effect and furthermore undertake to implement appropriate corrective action to avoid same or similar disclosure.  All queries should be addressed per email to our information officer, namely, Taryn van der Merwe at pa@vanzyulrudd.co.za.