Tag: employee dismissal

Section 41(4) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA) relieves an employer of the duty to pay severance pay in circumstances where the employee who is dismissed for operational requirements “unreasonably refuses to accept the employer’s offer of alternative employment with that employer or any other employer”.

The law on intoxicating substances in the workplace is clear. The Occupational Health and Safety Act places a strict obligation on employers to ensure that they do not allow entry to the workplace if an individual is intoxicated, whether under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The dismissal of an employee who failed to report the suspicious conduct of her colleague, in relation to missing monies, was found to be substantively fair. The failure of the employee to inform an employer of their business interests being improperly undermined, constitutes derivative misconduct for which dismissal may be afforded. 

Statistics South Africa has announced that South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to a record high 35.3% in the last quarter of year 2021. This was an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarterly unemployment rate. The expanded definition of unemployment rate is at 46.2%.

With the ravages of COVID-19 since early 2020, has come a rise in employees in full time employment taking on a ‘side hustle’ to supplement income. Further to this, remote working provides employees with a great opportunity to engage in secondary jobs, especially where once being at the office may have been a hindrance.

On Friday 21 January 2022, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) delivered a much anticipated first pronouncement on the fairness of a dismissal following an employee’s refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

On 21 January 2022, the first Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) decision relating to mandatory vaccinations in the workplace was issued. The Commissioner found that the employee's dismissal for incapacity arising from her refusal to vaccinate was both procedurally and substantively fair.

The Department of Employment and Labour introduced the Consolidated Direction on Health and Safety in Certain Workplaces on 11 June 2021. Effectively, it permits employers to introduce a mandatory vaccination policy provided certain conditions are met.

Think the chat you’ve had with a group of colleagues is a secret and won’t cost you your job and reputation? Think again… Nobody could have predicted that the arrival of social media on the business and social scene more than ten years ago could lose people jobs, reputations and careers. But it has.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) is receiving record numbers of retrenchment referrals, thanks to the pandemic. CCMA received 28,000 retrenchment cases from May to June 2020 during the lockdown.