Nkosikhona Nkosi, chief information officer of the CCMA. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo)
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) plans to deploy a WhatsApp chatbotfor labour dispute referrals, as it eyes tapping into generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
This is according to Nkosikhona Nkosi, chief information officer of the CCMA, in an interview with ITWeb TV.
Nkosi joined the podcast channel to discuss the nearly 30-year-old statutory body’s digital transformation strategy, the impact of emerging technologies on its processes and the labour market, SA’s labour law landscape, discrimination in the workplace, the gig economy and remote workers.
He also explained how the organisation’s IT functions went from “sitting” in the office of the GM for operations, to having a dedicated department with a CIO and team of 25 people overseeing its cyber security needs, establishing a disaster recovery plan and an IT strategy that speaks to business needs.
Established in 1996, some 4 005 704 cases have been referred to the CCMA.
During the 2023/24 financial year, the organisation received a total of 188 619 referrals, with unfair dismissals accounting for 52% of all referrals, statistics from the CCMA show.
A CCMA referral is the process of formally lodging a labour dispute, such as unfair dismissal or unfair labour practice, with the CCMA, using the official LRA 7.11 form.
Nkosi revealed the CCMA does have digital platforms for referrals, but nothing like the instant messaging platform.
The WhatsApp chatbot will form part of ensuring the referral process is agile and less intensive, he stated.
“Our WhatsApp chatbot is driven by generative AI (GenAI), and it’s built with our vendor partner. It will enable a user that brings a matter to the CCMA to capture their referral via their WhatsApp, track the case, receive notifications and arbitration, and chat to a case management officer should questions arise.
“WhatsApp is very pervasive in the country, with over 30 million users. Over and above that, the cellphone is much easier to use for the average South African than a computer to submit a referral.
“What we are trying to do is to enable users to capture referrals in the comfort of their home and submit them via a platform that is familiar to them. This forms part of the value-chain of moving to a digital case file, from the start of the labour dispute right up until the resolution.”
The GenAI WhatsApp tool is part of the organisation’s AI journey, he stated.
“We had the idea to enable referral submissions using WhatsApp five years ago, because it’s a familiar environment. When we consider the CCMA user, it’s a domestic worker, a security guard, an office cleaner, a corporate person, etc. These are the people we must serve who are all employees…so we needed to find a way to use AI in a responsible manner.
“GenAI and tools like ChatGPT have made it easier to consider options of how and when we use AI.
“We’re also busy with another proof of concept that’s a transcription service. It is internally-focused to assist the commissioners.”
Overcoming workflow hurdles
According to Nkosi, the CCMA’s case management system experienced several outages and the enterprise resource planning solution is not available as much as it should be.
As a result, the national public entity is also moving to a digital case file, to consolidate its systems using technology and manage cases from the time they are referred until an award is handed down, or a settlement letter has been received.
The case management system is built on Java with Oracle as a backend. The limitation with the solution is that it’s a ‘thick-client’ solution, which means to access it, one needs to use a computer, he added.
“Secondly, you need to be an employee of the CCMA. The CCMA is a bit complex because two-thirds of our commissioners are part-time commissioners, which makes them independent contractors. This means most of our commissioners can’t access the system.
“We’re now building a web platform that is beyond just a CMS [case management system]; it is consolidating multiple disparate systems that we’ve built over time. We want to move to a digital case file, from entry to exit (settlement letter, or award, or the matter being referred to the labour court) – all will be digital.
“The benefits of moving to that digital case file is…that across the public sector there have been budget cuts, so we want to deliver more and be able to use all resources at our disposal efficiently and effectively.”
Nkosi noted that technology has also allowed the entity to find case files on the system, making data more accessible, authentic and auditable.
“IT has enabled the organisation to provide the auditability of what we’re doing in terms of the core mandate of our work. It has also enabled us to provide the platforms to increase access to the institution, to be accessible to the public.”
