Latest Articles
Domestic workers are also protected from unfair dismissal
One of the biggest employment sectors in the country is that of domestic workers. There is specific minimum wage legislation relating to domestic workers, and as is to be expected, domestic workers have the same rights as their fellow workers in more formal sectors....
Social media e-misconduct is on the rise
The explosion of social media platforms, and their usage, has unsurprisingly spawned a fast growing plethora of workplace social media ‘e-misconduct’ cases. Put simply, this primarily involves cases in which employees insult and/or offend their employer and/or its...
Zero-tolerance policies in the spotlight
It is not unusual for employer’s to designate so-called ‘zero tolerance’ policies for certain acts of misconduct. For example, an employer will often adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards theft related cases and alcohol related offences. The upshot of this is that...
Failure to disclose prior criminal convictions
To what extent is a job applicant obligated to reveal to a prospective employer, that they have a criminal record? Is a job applicant obligated to reveal to a prospective employer, that they have a criminal record? To what extent are employers able to fairly...
Strikes and the law
The right to strike is recognised in most so-called western democracies, and is considered to be a necessary element of a trade union’s options when a deadlock is reached with an employer on various agenda items such as wage negotiations. Some commentators would argue...
The terrible twins: insubordination and insolence
You’ll often find the terrible twins, insubordination and insolence, hand in hand. Employees have a common-law obligation to subordinate themselves to the legitimate authority of their employer, and to the extent that they refuse to do so, they are insubordination....
Weed and the Workplace, what now?
On 18 September 2018, the Constitutional Court handed down its much publicised cannabis judgment which has far reaching implications in regards the private cultivation and/or use of cannabis. This is the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Court Development and...
Taking goods without permission is theft
It should go without saying, that employees have an absolute employment obligation to be honest at all times, in the course of their employment with an employer. This even extends to employees furthermore having an obligation to expose the dishonest acts of their...
Probation is a workplace trial period
Probation periods are dealt with in some detail, in Section 8 of Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act (Code of Good Practice: Dismissal). To begin with, it is imperative that employers include a probation period in contracts of employment, and equally imperative...
Executive performance dismissals differ from the norm
Our case law authority has, for some time, recognized that the pre-dismissal procedures required to be applied in cases of poor work performance dismissals for ordinary employees, do not apply to quite the same degree when dealing with senior managerial or executive...
Don’t use your phone whilst driving a forklift
One of the challenges faced by employers is the use of personal cellphones by employees during working hours. This is particularly problematic when the use of personal cellphones at work poses a risk to health and safety. This was the set of circumstances that was...
Minor acts of theft can justify dismissal
There are numerous CCMA and Bargaining Council arbitration awards and Labour Court judgments which have held that, in certain circumstances, cases of minor theft do not necessarily warrant dismissal. That’s not always true however. There are indeed circumstances of...