Latest Articles
Hearsay evidence is admissible at times
Hearsay evidence is evidence tendered by an individual who relays evidence which he/she did not personally witness with his/her own eyes or senses, but heard from someone else. Hearsay evidence is considered to be unreliable, problematic as the source of the evidence...
The days of Recognition Agreements are pretty much over
Those old enough to remember the labour relations environment in the 1980’s will remember the emergence of Recognition Agreements. The then Labour Relations Act had no codification of trade union rights, or what we today refer to as ‘organisational rights’. Way back...
Theft of relatively low cost items still typically warrants dismissal
One of our multi-national clients recently lamented the fact that, by a country mile, they experience the highest number of theft-related and dishonesty cases in South Africa, than anywhere else in the world. The unfortunate reality is that our consultancy deals with...
Lots of boxes to tick when proving poor performance
At the end of the day, managers and supervisors are paid to manage and supervise two things, employee conduct and employee performance. From an employment law point of view, the conduct aspect of management becomes important when the employee’s conduct becomes...
Refusal to undergo a polygraph test may be grounds for dismissal
Polygraph and truth verification tests have been around for some time. You won’t need to look far to find someone with an opinion on these tests, with those claiming that they are all but infallible, to those who doubt their accuracy. Regardless, these tests are...
Yes, you can be dismissed on grounds of ill-health absenteeism
As uncompassionate as it may sound, employers are not obligated to employ an employee, who is habitually absent on grounds of ill health, indefinitely. ‘Incapacity’ is one of the three species of dismissal in our law, with the other two being ‘misconduct’ and...
Concourt provides guidelines on an employer’s duty of good faith in derivative misconduct cases
All employees have a common-law obligation to their employers to promote and protect the interests of the employer, at all times. This includes informing management of any planned or actual acts of misconduct they have knowledge of. It could, for example, include...
When the Labour Appeal Court considers a dismissal sanction too harsh
We know that too severe a sanction in a disciplinary hearing amounts to substantive unfairness. The dilemma facing employers in the selecting of a sanction, and more especially the sanction of dismissal, was highlighted in the recent (13 June 2019) Labour Appeal court...
30+ years of labour relations consulting observations in SA
Our labour relations consultancy is in its 25th year, and this has inclined our team to reminisce over our journey, and prompted me to recall the trends and developments over time. Labour relations is seldom viewed dispassionately. It is a field which spans a...
Discipline post resignation, yay or nay?
Our courts have rendered contradictory judgments regarding whether, or not, employers are allowed to schedule disciplinary hearings after an employee has resigned. In the Public sector, due to a prevailing collective agreement, the position is quite clear, an...
Labour Court Reiterates the Value of Polygraph Tests
Over time, there has, to some degree, been conflicting law regarding the extent of the admissibility of polygraph test results in disciplinary hearings. More especially, this has related to whether an employer can rely solely on a failed polygraph test to prove the...
Jobs for cash is more widespread than you think
‘Jobs for cash’ is not a new phenomenon. We observe this with clients on a quite frequent basis. It’s quite simple. Someone within the company, with influence over recruitment and selection decisions, accepts cash to ensure a job applicant’s employment. It can...