Are private disciplinary hearings a thing of the past? BY lvan lsraelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or via e-mail address: [email protected]. Item 4 of the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (The Code) contained in Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) states…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address:[email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za Earlier this year I wrote an article warning of the dangers of enforcing compulsory Covid vaccinations at the workplace. Despite this, a trend towards compulsory vaccination has begun. This…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Web Address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. The takeover of an entity or part thereof by a new owner or a new management often cause loss of jobs and employees are often desperate to stay…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. What rights do employers have to discipline employees for misconduct perpetrated outside the workplace? While employers have very few rights under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) they do…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za It has become a practice by employers to insert automatic termination clauses into employment contracts for reasons including the following: The employer and employee might agree that, should…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or via e-mail address: [email protected]. Website address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Employers frequently suspect that serious misconduct has occurred but are unable to prove which employee or employees are responsible. Some case law has given the impression that, in…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za The Protected Disclosures Act no. 26 of 2000 (PDA) protects employees from reprisals as a result of having blown the whistle on the employer. This applies whether the…
Labour law provides scant protection for employers BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za In 1995 the old Labour Relations Act promulgated in 1956 was scrapped by the new ANC government. The old act was…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za It is very easy to employ a worker on the basis of a fixed-term contract. However, it is when you want to end the employment relationship that the…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za The CCMA has produced an important set of guidelines on Misconduct Arbitrations in terms of the provisions of the Labour Relations Act (LRA). The stated purpose of these…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za In one of my recent articles I touched on the issue of productivity at the workplace. I mentioned that, now more than ever, businesses and their employees need…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za The most frequent question I am asked is, “How do we productively manage employees working from home?” This question is not only important during the lockdown. It will…
BY lvan lsraelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Web Address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Our articles over the past years have made it crystal clear that, for an employer, South African labour law is a minefield riddled with endless hidden dangers. That…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to:www.labourlawadvice.co.za 2020 was a year of terror at workplaces because of the physical and financial dangers posed by Covid19. Due to the fact that the rollout of the vaccine will…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za Many employers like using Dereliction of Duty as a disciplinary charge when they want to inflict strong punishment employees because the phrase ‘dereliction of duty’ has a serious…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address:[email protected]. Web Address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. With very few exceptions anyone who works for any organisation is an employee. Section 213 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) provides that an employee is anyone, other than…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Web Address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Labour brokers and temp. agencies employ hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa and are referred to in the LRA as “temporary employment services” (TES). Many of…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Web Address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Many employers, when considering dismissal, do not mind taking into account the fact that the guilty employee has long service. However, having weighed this against the seriousness of…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Web Address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Making unsupported allegations of unfairness against employers can be costly. This is partly because the CCMA, Labour Court, Labour Appeal Court and bargaining councils deal with over 200…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Can the employer discipline an employee twice for the very same incident of misconduct? Under exceptional circumstances a second disciplinary process might be justified if the employer is…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za The lodging of complaints by staff can be used as grounds neither for alleging incompatibility nor for dismissing employees. In the case of Jabari vs Telkom SA (Pty)…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. It is inherent in the nature of employment relationships that, as the employer is paying the employee for his services, he/she is obliged to be loyal to the…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za In order to optimise the corrective effect of discipline it needs to be implemented as swiftly as possible. This does not mean that the disciplinary process must be…
Dismissing employees who have been arrested can be dangerous. BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za It seems obvious to employers that, if an employee is arrested by the police he has ‘dismissed himself’. However,…
BY Ivan Israelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 888-7944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za The most important reason for employing people is the need for their skills. The question is whether the money expended in order to acquire and retain these employee…