The retailer Dis-Chem has made headlines with a worker strike that resulted in the Labour Court barring union members from picketing and protesting outside the retailer’s stores until 27 February 2019. This ruling made a statement on the transformation of collective bargaining in South Africa. Labour laws in practice The right to picket can be... Read More
employees
Workplace discrimination is defined as a work environment that exhibits bias or discriminatory behaviour in the treatment of the employees based on a number of varying factors, such as marital status, gender, pregnancy, sexual preference, race, colour, nationality, disability, belief, or age. Such discrimination occurs at all stages and levels within an organisation, from employment... Read More
It is that time of the year when employers start planning for the company’s Year-End Function. Unfortunately, you will always have that small group of employees who consume too much alcohol and gather enough courage to air their grievances with management or colleagues. These confrontations often end in physical fights or verbal abuse in plain... Read More
Employers are often faced with allegations of being inconsistent in the application of a rule, be it late-coming or negligence or any other form of misconduct. As per Schedule 8 in the Code of Good Practice – Dismissal, in order to succeed with a substantively fair dismissal for misconduct, an employer must be able to... Read More
Employers are of the view that registration at the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is voluntary and are usually faced with interest and penalties payable by them for non-compliance or non-payment. The purpose of the fund is to give short-term relief to employees or their dependents when they become unemployed or are unable to work for... Read More
On 16 October 2018, the South African Department of Labour issued Government Notice No. 1105 regarding the implementation of the Compensation Fund’s New Assessment Model. Currently, the Compensation Fund assess employers on the basis of the industry they operate in and are assigned a specific assessment class for the basis of determining their liability to... Read More
Employers often suspend employees in frustration without following the correct procedure, when the employee commits an act of misconduct. It is important to follow the correct procedure when considering suspending the employee in anticipation of a disciplinary hearing and to only suspend for justifiable reasons as the contrary can result in an unfair labour practice.... Read More
Bumping is when employee A who is at risk of being retrenched ‘bumps’ employee B out of his/her position and employee B gets retrenched instead. Bumping is utilized to retain senior, valued staff members who opt to move to a more junior position to remain in the companies’ employ. Bumping has 2 forms namely horizontal... Read More
Workplace policies are a specific set of rules or procedures that are followed within a company. These could contain detailed procedures that must be followed when performing daily duties and responsibilities, a health and safety procedure used in the event of an emergency or even a set of general rules that must be complied with,... Read More
Employers often ask questions regarding the guidelines to be followed when employees refuse to acknowledge receipt of any labour related document. A labour related document can be regarded as contracts of employment, disciplinary code, company rules and policies, disciplinary procedure documents, retrenchment documents, incapacity procedure documents etc. The most common practices will be discussed below:... Read More
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