Legal Opinion
How do you terminate someone’s employment when they should’ve already retired?
- Published on 11 Jul 2013
- Jan Truter
Because of advances in medical science, and the changing nature of working conditions, more and more people tend to work ‘til their later years. Sometimes, it makes sense for companies to allow certain employees to continue working after the agreed or “normal retirement” age. But how do you go about terminating employment during this period?
Double jeopardy is not on!
- Published on 19 Jun 2013
- Ivan Israelstam
A recent article in The Star reported that the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) dismissed a man named Mr Pretorius. He had been the section head of the SABS’ crash test and component testing section.
Pretorius was reportedly dismissed for illegally selling crash test bodies after allegedly giving a crash test body to a friend in exchange for a go-cart sponsorship.
But from the report, it appears that he had already been given a 12-month final written warning for this very offence in August last year.
An employee has an obligation to comply with a reasonable instruction
- Published on 3 Jun 2013
- Gavin Stansfield
The balance was tipped in favour of employers in the recent Labour Appeal Court decision of Motor Industry Staff Association and another v Silverton Spraypainters and Panelbeaters (Pty) Ltd and two others [2012] ZALAC 42 (LAC). Even though labour laws prohibit an employer from unilaterally changing terms and conditions of employment, this decision confirmed that employees do not have a vested right to preserve their working obligations completely unchanged.
Academic institutions are not immune from labour problems
- Published on 27 May 2013
- Ivan Israelstam
It is not only corporate employers who mess up their disciplinary, labour relations and performance management procedures. We have been asked to assist in more and more cases where academic institutions have breached labour law provisions because they have ignored their own policies.
Giving unions greater access to organisational rights
- Published on 9 May 2013
- Faan Coetzee and Samantha Kelly
To represent their members and operate effectively, trade unions require certain privileges, which include access to their employer's premises, access to certain information, the ability to collect union dues and appoint shop stewards.
However, given the importance of collective bargaining in the national labour relations framework, the Labour Relations Act, No 66 of 1995 (LRA), has, in certain instances, elevated the above-mentioned privileges to legal rights.
