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Late Coming: A Serious Form of Misconduct

Many employers struggle with late-coming of employees. While most consider this a relatively minor offence, habitual late-coming by an employee may begin to impact on production output and encourage a laissez-faire approach to time-keeping by other employees. Many employees who are habitual late comers will generally justify their poor time keeping on the grounds that […]

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New Directive on Access to the CCMA during COVID-19 Pandemic

On 30 July the CCMA issued a new directive on access to the CCMA during the COVID-19 pandemic which came into effect on 01 August 2020. This Directive serves to amend the Directives regulating access to the CCMA that were issued by the CCMA Director on 08 May 2020 and to repeal the subsequent Directive […]

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Defensive and Offensive Lockouts

A “defensive lockout” is the employer’s right to exclude striking employees from the workplace. Where employees have embarked on strike action, a defensive lockout presents them with a choice: they may either continue with the strike or accept the employer’s final offer. Where a lockout is not in response to a strike but is utilised […]

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Payment of Employees for Public Holidays

Section 18 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act provides as follows: “(2) If a public holiday falls on a day on which an employee would ordinarily work, an employer must pay – (a) an employee who does not work on the public holiday, at least the wage that the employee would ordinarily have received […]

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Video Conferencing: The new normal?

In Food and Allied Workers Union v South African Breweries (Pty) Ltd J435/20 an urgent application was heard by the Labour Court regarding a section 189A facilitated retrenchment process initiated by SAB in January 2020. The predominant issue upon which the court was called to decide was the fairness of the continuation of the facilitated […]

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Labour Inspectors in the Workplace

Chapter 10 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act outlines the authorities of a Labour Inspector.  In short summary of this chapter, the labour inspector has the authority to advise employees and employers of their rights; conduct inspections of employer’s records that it is obliged to keep in terms of the BCEA; investigate any complaints […]

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Why is consultation with affected employees before implementing Lay-offs important?

Where a contract of employment is silent on the issue of Temporary Lay-Offs, an employer is obligated to embark upon a consultation process with the affected employees, in an attempt to reach an agreement. This obligation is intended to protect employees from any unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of their employment – which amounts to an unfair labour practice.  Affected employees, and […]

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Two Webinars: Effective Workplace Discipline – Virtual Disciplinary Enquiries – TBA

Section 185 of the Labour Relations Act gives all employees the right not to be unfairly dismissed. However, many employers still make fundamental mistakes when taking corrective action against their employees. The key to successful workplace discipline starts with understanding the principles of progressive discipline and ensuring you know the procedural requirements to ensure fairness. […]

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