Human Capital

Other than the structural issues our society faces, one factor that has been fueling the existing gender pay gap in South Africa is the educational and career choices young women make.

A new type of leadership is building high-performance teams. What does it actually mean, and have you ever thought about WHAT makes a successful team?

In the case of Jabari vs Telkom SA (Pty) Ltd (2006, 10 BLLR 924) the Labour Court highlighted three characteristics of incompatibility: Firstly - Incompatibility refers to the employee’s 'inability or failure to maintain cordial and harmonious relationships with his peers', secondly - Incompatibility is a form of 'incapacity', and thirdly - Incompatibility is an 'amorphous, nebulous concept, based on subjective value judgments'.

Employees, earning below the prescribed earnings threshold of R205,433.30 per annum, who are placed with a client by a temporary employment service (TES) for a period exceeding three months are solely employed by the client, and the TES is no longer the employer of that employee.

In business and labour, sick notes are of utmost importance, they play a far bigger role in effective HR management than many realise. Misunderstanding of the basic function of the sick note can lead to problems in terms of people management.

While unemployment and poverty remain some of South Africa’s biggest threats, our centralised collective bargaining model, which culminates in bargaining councils extending agreements to non-parties, remains the biggest deterrent to employment in affected industries.

Executive directors are facing a number of challenges and their companies are increasingly being held to account for their contribution to social upliftment in the face of pervasive inequality. Recent corporate failures have highlighted the importance of good corporate governance and ensuring that remuneration packages are appropriately structured so as to not drive excessive risk-taking.

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) Bill has been passed by the National Assembly and sent for concurrence to the National Council of Provinces. The implementation date of the NMW Bill will be announced after the National Council of Provinces (NCOP's) select committee considers the NMW Bill. The NMW legislation is intended to provide for a national minimum wage; to establish a National Minimum Wage Commission; to review and annually adjust the national minimum wage and provide for exemption from paying the national minimum wage.

What are the practicalities in implementation when trying to apply and decode the draft Bill? I have spent considerable time recently evaluating the practicalities of implementing the Bill on the NMW at numerous clients’ requests. I find it lacking clarity as there are no practical methods for calculating wages and it doesn’t adhere to ‘plain language principle’.

Common law obliges employees to be loyal to their employers, to carry out their work properly, to protect the employer’s reputation and to avoid conduct that could clash with the employer’s interests. However, there are limits to the employee’s duty of loyalty.