The constitutional right to fair labour practices : a consideration of the influence and continued importance of the historical regulation of (un)fair labour practices pre-1977

Abstract

It is safe to state that the right to work - to provide labour in return for remuneration - has its origin in a person's right to existence. A person's right to physical and emotional existence is probably the most fundamental of all human rights. In primitive times this right was subdivided into seven categories: the right to fish, to hunt, to work land, to harvest, to associate, to be free from troubles and the right to loot. But an increase in the population on earth and a consequent decrease in natural resources led to the exchange of the first four rights (fishing, hunting, cultivation and harvesting) for a right where independent existence was lost forever: labour.