LOCKED DOWN!!! It’s certainly a hard-hitting reality now. We wake up to our new alternative reality, attempting to negotiate being confined to our humble abodes, working from home and the constant distraction of our children’s needs. As a father of two toddlers, I have a newly acquired respect for nursery school teachers! However, whilst we are in lockdown, it is important to note that most businesses are likely to cease operations, or at the very least are at a diminished capacity. Many will...

Can an Employer pay salaries and claim back from UIF? Media reports with regard to the payment of employees by employers during the lockdown period and thereafter claim it back, may cause grave confusion. In an article dated  24 March 2020 by FIN24, it was suggested that employers should pay their employees and will then be able to claim this back from UIF. Congress of South African Trade Unions Parliamentary Coordinator Matthew Parks told Fin24 the discussion at Nedlac was regarding a...

On 23 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa took a drastic and unprecedented step by declaring a nationwide lock-down set to begin at 23h59 on Thursday and end on 16 April 2020 in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Who will be affected? The lock-down will affect everyone and nobody will be allowed to leave their homes for 21 days, unless under strictly controlled circumstances as indicated by the President.  An exception applies to people working in the essential...

Negligence can be described as “the culpable failure to exercise the degree of care expected of a reasonable person with the skill, qualifications and experience comparable to that of the accused employee”. This usually takes the form of omission but can also flow from some form of action taken by the employee. Employers are often faced with instances of negligence where an employee “forgot” to do something which has no real effect on the business. Managers will often not discipline for this...

Now and again, a pandemic takes the world by storm. From the “Spanish Flu”, the 1918 influenza epidemic to the more recent swine flu outbreak of 2009. Each brought with it its hysteria and pandemonium.  The present-day cause of great concern and panic that has taken over the world at large and remains a hot topic on everyone’s lips, is the Covid-19 disease, more commonly referred to as the Coronavirus.  The purpose of this article is not to deal with the medical aspects of the virus...

The question often arises from employers is whether the employer has any rights in terms of the Labour Relations Act (LRA), to deny a registered trade union access to the workplace? Before looking at what rights the employer has, we need to look at the definition of ‘workplace’. The general rule is that all places where employees of an employer work constitute a single workplace. Only when an operator operates independently of the others does it constitute a separate workplace. In South...

Fraudulent medical certificates are quickly becoming one of the most common misconducts for which we chair hearings and quite often there is insufficient evidence to find an Employee guilty. This type of misconduct falls into the category of dishonest conduct. To find an employee guilty of dishonesty it must be established that he/she committed the offence with intent; the intent to benefit from it and the intent to mislead you. It is not enough to prove that the medical certificate was issued...

After an employee claims that he has been unfairly dismissed, the usual route to follow is to refer an unfair dismissal to the CCMA. The commissioner will then make a ruling and if any party does not agree with the ruling that party can take the matter on review to the Labour Court. However, if the case is not reviewable that is the end of the road, right? In a recent case of Archer v Public School - Pinelands and Others (C362/17) ZALCCT 10 the employee referred an unfair dismissal case to the...

The common term "justice delayed, is justice denied" holds weight in our law and is even enshrined in our Constitution. But how does it affect the Trust relationship when the dismissal of an employee is in the issue? The Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport v Motshosa and others [2005) BLLR 957 (LC) and Riekert vs CCMA and Others (2006) 4 BLLB 353 are cases wherein the Labour Court had found that the delay between the actual misconduct and the date of...

Often times, employers find themselves having to deal with the tedious graduated disciplinary measures against employees that have transgressed the set disciplinary code in the workplace and the process can be found to be frustrating, driving the employers into adopting so-called ‘zero-tolerance policies’ in the workplace to expedite dealing with such transgressions.   In terms of item 3(1) of Schedule 8 - Code of Good Practice: Dismissal of Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 on ‘disciplinary...