Section 200 of the Labour Relations Act states that a registered trade union or registered employers’ organisation may act as representatives to employees in workplace disputes. In Calgan Lounge v EFF & Others (J2648/18), handed down in the Labour Court, the EFF’s role in workplace issues was considered. A political party cannot derive powers to interfere in the workplace from the Constitution, as the rights in the Constitution are given effect to in the LRA, specifically designated to...

Dismissal for petty theft has always been a severe debatable issue in the labour field. In the case of Nando’s Scottsville v CCMA and Others (D06/2019), an employee was dismissed for eating two individual slices of carrots from the bain-marie. The employee was charged with the following: ‘Unauthorised Consumption of Company Stock – in that they alleged that  the employee was dishonest by consuming company stock being vegetables whilst on duty on the 08/04/2018 at Nando’s Scotville.’ The...

In terms of Labour Law, there is a difference between the termination of an employment contract and the concept of dismissal. An employee claiming unfair dismissal must establish the existence of dismissal, and it is the onus of the employee to prove the existence of a dismissal, which is not necessarily unfair. Any form of dismissal must be procedurally and substantively fair, and focus is placed on the following six examples in terms of the meaning of dismissal. Termination of employment by...

Can an employee in a labour dispute request the chairperson to recuse themselves because the chairperson is of the same race as the employer’s legal representative? The employee, who described himself as a “Black male”, demanded the recusal of the CCMA-appointed Commissioner, an Indian male, on the basis that the Commissioner and the employer’s attorney and counsel were also Indian. Therefore, the arbitration proceedings were “racially imbalanced” against him. The Commissioner found that this...