The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) serves the South Africa public education sector nationally. It is a statutory council, initially established by the Education Labour Relations Act, 1993 but now draws authority from the Labour Relations Act, 1995. The ELRC is primarily established with the aim of maintaining labour peace within public education. This is achieved through a processes of dispute prevention and dipute resolution.

The ELRC is involved in initiatives to prevent disputes from arising within the public education sector. This is achieved through facilitating the process of constructive collective bargaining between educator unions and the Department of Education as employer.