Employment and Labour Law Update: October 2024
A selection of references from the October 2024 issues of the Lexinfo Employment and Labour Law Alert.
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Ivan Israelstam
Oct 213 min read
Misuse of legal technicalities endangers tightrope balance.
Labour law gives the employee the onus of proving that he/she was dismissed. Therefore, if the employee cannot prove the existence of an all
10 views
Ivan Israelstam
Sep 302 min read
Delaying the charging of employees can rock the labour law tightrope
Too many employers make the mistake of unnecessarily delaying the charging of employees for misconduct. Failing to discipline employees...
6 views
Ivan Israelstam
Sep 183 min read
Silence can mean consent!
The Labour Relations Act (LRA) gives the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court numerous and strong powers to make decisions relating to...
12 views
Ivan Israelstam
Sep 23 min read
Investigation is an art and a science.
Employers often fail to investigate allegations of misconduct or poor performance properly because they are busy, because of feelings of...
6 views
Ivan Israelstam
Aug 263 min read
Dismissing union activists can shake the labour law tightrope
The rights of workers to join trade unions and to participate in their activities is heavily protected by the Constitution and by the...
7 views
Ivan Israelstam
Aug 123 min read
Don’t Charge Employees Without Proof of Misconduct
Labour law heavily protects employees from unfair dismissal. Section 188 of the LRA effectively provides that a dismissal will be unfair...
15 views
Ivan Israelstam
Jul 153 min read
Defiance of awards can be costly
Conciliation is a process used by the CCMA and bargaining councils to enable the disputing parties to settle the matter amicably without...
4 views
Ivan Israelstam
Apr 293 min read
Confessions Not Always Irrefutable
While it is understandable that some employers assume that employees who confess to misconduct can be automatically fired...
16 views
Ivan Israelstam
Apr 224 min read
The LRA And Unfair Labour Practices
The Labour Relations Act (LRA) does not define the meaning of “unfair” but describes “Unfair labour Practice” as “any unfair act...
26 views
Ivan Israelstam
Apr 154 min read
Unfairness Is An Elusive Concept
Despite the fact that the CCMA and Labour Courts judge employers on the fairness of their actions in respect of employees the...
10 views
Ivan Israelstam
Mar 53 min read
Employees are required to be trustworthy
Since 1995 South African employees have had very strong labour law rights. These include, amongst others, the right to join trade unions...
17 views
Ivan Israelstam
Jan 293 min read
Beware of firing poor performers
Employee work performance is a key requirement for the operational success of businesses and other workplaces in South africa...
16 views
Ivan Israelstam
Jan 104 min read
Suspend employees with care
There is a very big and clear difference between a suspension and a dismissal. A dismissal brings the employee’s employment to...
9 views
Ivan Israelstam
Dec 18, 20234 min read
Tampering with disciplinary hearings a no-no
There are several unfair methods that might be used at disciplinary hearings, appeal hearings and arbitration hearings. These unsavoury...
10 views
Ivan Israelstam
Dec 11, 20234 min read
Entrap employees at your peril
Section 188 of the LRA provides, in effect, that the employer is assumed, from the outset of an arbitration hearing or court case, to be...
9 views
Ivan Israelstam
Nov 20, 20234 min read
Accused employees have the right to challenge the evidence against them
Every employee who is charged with workplace misconduct has the legal right to challenge all the evidence brought by the employer...
43 views
Ivan Israelstam
Nov 17, 20233 min read
Court findings drive employers to drink
The Rustenburg Platinum finding and the Shoprite Checkers finding that I discussed in previous articles show that arbitrators and judges...
17 views
Ivan Israelstam
Oct 30, 20233 min read
There are degrees of dishonesty
The law does allow employers to dismiss employees for dishonesty. This is because dishonesty can destroy the ability of the employer...
26 views
Ivan Israelstam
Oct 23, 20234 min read
Good faith consultation is obligatory for retrenchments
The Labour Relations Act (LRA) makes it obligatory for employers that are contemplating retrenchments to first consult about this...
14 views
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