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...

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...