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...

In practice, employers are often faced with a situation whereby a union has recruited employees in the workplace and now wishes to meet with the employer to negotiate organisational rights such as access to the workplace, stop order facilities in respect of union membership fees, the election of shop stewards and disclosure of information.   Section 21 of the Labour Relations Act (Act 66 of 1995), hereafter “The LRA”, determines that the union must notify the employer in writing of its...

There comes a time in any employer/business owner’s tenure that employees will engage in negotiating either increase, retrenchment packages or conditions of employment. This is often conducted through a representative Trade Union. These negotiations are often superseded by a long letter that contains various demands. Employers are often reluctant to engage meaningfully with trade unions as they often have the misguided perception that the process is futile and will ultimately end up in...

Many employers are concerned regarding HIV or AIDS in their workplace and the protection of their staff.  They often wonder if they could insist on being informed by an employee who has contracted the decease and if disciplinary action can be taken against an employee whom does not reveal their HIV or AIDS status or refuses to do so. The answer and solution for those employers are simple. Section 14 of the Constitution of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, provides all with the right to privacy. ...

The Beeld News Paper published an article in it’s 5 November 2019 edition regarding paternity leave and the right to claim paternity benefits from the Unemployment Benefit Fund, which may cause some confusion. The article named “Pa’s kan vir 10 dae na baba se geboorte van WVF eis” is to some extent factually wrong. This article may cause readers to assume that the rights to paternity leave in terms of the future amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act via the Labour Laws Amendment...

Nowadays employees have the tendency to secretly record all internal labour matters and often employers are caught off-guard by these audio recordings submitted by accused employees as evidence during disciplinary hearings. Employers are often of the view that such evidence is inadmissible as it was either obtained unlawfully, no consent was given or they had no knowledge of the recording. Recently, the Amabhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism disputed parts of the Regulation of...

What happens when an employee becomes unable to perform their duty for reasons beyond their control?  Be it the suspension of a driver’s licence, expiration of a work visa, imprisonment, or legislation that has been promulgated rendering the employee incapable continuing their work, how does an employer deal with such a situation?  Does the employer retrench the employee based on operational requirements set out in Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) or follow the general...

Background In the recent Labour Court matter, heard on 17/05/2019, Jacobson v Vitalab (LC) (unreported case no JS 1042/12, 25/05/19), Van Niekerk J dealt with the interpretation and the ambit of section 187 (1)(c) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA). The matter at hand was if an individual employee can successfully rely on section 187 (1)(c) to claim that his dismissal was automatically unfair. Section 187(1)(c)  was amended in 2014 to provide that a dismissal is automatically...