Latest Articles
Employees may be required to attend disciplinary hearings even if booked off sick
Many employers will have been frustrated at times by employees presenting medical certificates covering the day or days on which the employee is required to attend a disciplinary hearing. It is of course quite possible that the employee is genuinely ill, and must be...
Arbitration costs awards are rare
It’s rare for a winning party to win costs in a CCMA or Bargaining Council arbitration case. Section 138(10) of the Labour Relations Act makes limited provision for costs to be awarded in favour of a party to an arbitration hearing. In short, costs may be awarded...
CCMA should heed criticism
The CCMA has been on the receiving end of some sharp criticism of late, which it has predictably elected to respond to defensively with a degree of self-righteous indignation. Let me say up front, the very role of the CCMA in workplace dispute resolution places it in...
Attempted theft from employers is an unfortunate scourge
It is hard to argue with employers who frequently cynically lament that certain employees are so willing to so readily steal, or attempt to steal, from them. There may indeed be a myriad of socio-economic reasons for this scourge. None the less, it must surely be...
Beware the office party mayhem
It’s that time of year again when office parties are in full swing. Whilst most office parties are incident free, some can be notoriously memorable for all the wrong reasons. Let’s face it, with spirits running high and alcohol flowing, you frequently have the...
Circumstantial evidence revisited
Circumstantial evidence is indeed admissible in disciplinary and arbitration hearings; that much we already know. However, certain important factors relating to the introduction of circumstantial evidence, and the manner in which it is to be dealt with, must be borne...
Clear guidelines exist in abscondment cases
Case law has, for some time now, established laid down procedures and requirements which must be followed when an employee absconds and the employer knows the whereabouts of the absent employee. In circumstances where an employee absconds, deserts or sis simply absent...
Can one chairman start a disciplinary hearing and another finish?
I was posed a genuinely interesting question by a colleague last week. The scenario was as follows; if in a disciplinary hearing chairperson X, after delivering a verdict, becomes incapacitated, or even dies, prior to hearing mitigating and aggravating factors and...
Dismissal related to sex-change ruled unfair
The Labour Relations Act (LRA) makes it perfectly clear in section 187(1)(f) that a dismissal is automatically unfair if the reason for the dismissal is “that the employer unfairly discriminated against an employee, directly or indirectly, on any arbitrary ground,...
Angloplats are right to sue AMCU
Almost a month ago, it was announced that Anglo American Platinum was taking the unprecedented step of suing a trade union (AMCU) for a minimum of R591 million damages for costs associated with protection services overtime, lost production due to non-strikers being...
A trap or entrapment?
Our firm is frequently asked by clients, whether it is permissible to ‘lay a trap’ for staff suspected of, for example, dishonesty. Let’s for example, use the example of an employer suspecting that a receiving clerk is a member of a syndicate, which includes the...
An alleged breakdown in trust must be proved
Accidents with employees at the wheel of company vehicles do arise from time to time. However, in the Labour Appeal Court case of Edcon Ltd v Pillemer, the CCMA & 1 other (DA4/06), the court had to deal with a circumstance in which an employee’s son had an...