Legal Liaison Manager (Gauteng) at Motor Industry Bargaining Council

Key Performance Area and Inputs

Strategic Contribution

• Provide strategic recommendations to and partner with the MIBCO’s executive team on all operational and strategic issues as they arise, based on legal environmental analysis.
• Participate in the development of the overall MIBCO strategic goals and take full responsibility and accountability for developing and implementing the Legal Business Unit’s strategic objectives.
• Maintain and promote a compliance strategy to ensure stakeholders receive optimal legal support.
• Build and leverage efficiencies for the business unit in a way that creates value for the MIBCO through the provision of legal expertise; manage legal collection issues to minimize write-offs.
• Sit on relevant executive committees, as required by the Bargaining Council, and provide the requisite legal advice.
• Advise the Executive committee and the Board and its committees around issues, trends, and changes in legislation and recommend improvements.
• Proactively establish systems that identify areas of high risk and criticality from a legal perspective and design contingency and mitigation plans around identified issues.

Financial Management

• Analyze and report on Business Unital trends and operating requirements to determine funding requirements for the financial year.
• Prepare, finalize, and take ownership of the Business Unit’s annual budget.
• Manage the overall financial budget for the Business Unit to ensure financial budget and controls contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Business Unit and support the accomplishment of service delivery objectives.
• Propose and implement corrective measures to rectify deviations to budgetary provisions and Business Unital procedures.
• Approve and sign off invoices and requisitions, etc. for expenditure, within levels of authority.

People Management

• Engage in people-planning initiatives for the Business Unit, forecasting the skills required to meet business demands.
• Manage the entire value chain of human resources-related aspects (i.e., recruitment and selection, performance management, skill development etc.) of the Business Unit, with support from Human Resources.
• Mentor, guide, and provide thought leadership for the Business Unit, sharing impactful knowledge to drive the success of the team.
• Create a high-performance culture for the Business Unit, enabling individuals to work as effectively as possible to meet business goals

Stakeholder Management

• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure information, advice or opinions on relevant matters is made available and/or communicated appropriately and timeously.
• Maintain relationships with the various regulators, by drafting responses pertaining to queries received.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Verify that all statutory reporting requirements of the MIBCO are always complied with, and the compilation of the Council’s financial statements is in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.
• Manage and monitor the legal frameworks within the organisations, focusing on market, industry and legislative changes ensuring that the MIBCO adapts and remains compliant.

Legal Advisory Services

• Take ownership of legal risks facing MIBCO, and responsibility for the management of the risk appetite.
• Define legal risks facing MIBCO, through both proactive and reactive approaches; identify and understand potential risks and take accountability for the mitigation thereof.
• Provide legal advice and support to the Board, Executive, Senior Management, and key stakeholders on matters that affect or potentially affect the MIBCO, through the preparation of legal briefs, advising on business transactions, property management, liabilities, rights and obligations, interpretation of laws, judgments, ruling, and regulations.
• Provide a consolidated report, and recommendations to the governing board and various committees on legal issues, material breaches, potential compliance breaches and legal related correspondence received.
• Advise on disciplinary cases for and behalf of the organisations.
• Interpret laws, regulations, and court rulings to advise the Council on the necessary course of action to be taken.
• Advise, manage, institute, and defend matters in which the MIBCO has interest in all courts and regularly report to Exco and Board on litigation status.
• Prepare brief and/ or consult with external counsel/ legal advisors on legal issues where necessary. Engage and manage outside counsel to ensure costs are within budget and supervise and coordinate work performed by outside counsel.
• Respond to all legal claims and enquiries directed to the MIBCO, including pension fund adjudicator queries, and examine legal data to determine advisability of defending or prosecuting lawsuits.

Legal Systems and Support

• Act as a Process Owner at a national level, and share developed legal procedures with all six regions to maintain consistency in the application thereof at a national level.
• Confirm the facilitation of legal workshops with all relevant legal personnel for the implementation of legal processes or to address legal challenges.
• Develop legal systems, and ensure adherence to these, to maintain a strong linkage to other Business Unit systems.
• Oversee the handling of demarcation processes on a jurisdictional basis and provide expertise in complex matters, as required.
• Recommend system improvements to process write offs/ reversals of bad debt; report updates to the Funds and MIBCO Boards.
• Support MIBCO Process Owners and the General Secretary to ensure the Legal function is the true Centre of Excellence in terms of interpretation and application of the law.

Contract Management

• Identify and minimize legal risk by actively managing the lifecycle of all contracts, ensuring all contracts are in line with MIBCO policies, and vet all contracts to protect MIBCO’s best interests.
• Verify the correct delegated party/-ies are assigned to sign contracts as per policy, implement and allocate contract numbers and capture on the system, to prevent MIBCO from entering contracts with exposure to undue risk.
• Participate in the Tender Committee to assess Request for Proposals and Request for Quotations to appoint the most suitable service provider for a specific process.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Postgraduate Degree in Law
• Must be admitted as an Attorney/ Advocate (with Full Pupillage)
• In-depth knowledge of the Labour Relations Act and related employment legislation, Labour Court processes and procedures with sound knowledge of the Civil procedure is required.

Desired Qualifications

• Other Business Management/ Leadership related qualifications/ certificates will be an advantage.
• Knowledge of the Motor Industry Bargaining Council’s Collective Agreements and relevant governing Legislation i.e., LRA, Pension Fund Act, Credit Act etc. will be a definite advantage.

Minimum Experience

•  8 years’ experience in the Labour environment post admission as an attorney

Desired Experience

• 5 years’ experience at executive level