Look after employees who have recently given birth 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. Pregnant employees are strongly protected under South African law. There are no fewer than six pieces of legislation that require…
Sick employees can drive employers to drink 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 law prohibits employers from disciplining employees who are ill or disabled. For example, an employee who uses narcotics and becomes…
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 Labour Relations Act of 1995 (LRA) makes it very easy for employees to challenge alleged unfair dismissals and other unfair practices at private or statutory dispute resolution…
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 Due to the fact that some employers are unskilled in dealing both effectively and legally with poor performance or misconduct they look for other ways of getting rid…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. It does happen that an employee continues to break rules regardless of how well he/she is managed. However, in my experience this is more the exception than the…
What rights do employers have to discipline employees for misconduct perpetrated outside the workplace? BY lvan lsraelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 8887944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Website address: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. This article first appeared in The Star. While employers have very few rights under…
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 We have regularly reminded employers of the factors that render dismissals for operational requirements (retrenchments) fair and unfair. Despite this, employers continue to get it wrong and land…
BY lvan lsraelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on (011) 8887944 or 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Website address: 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. This article first appeared in The Star. In the case of Moloi vs Quthing Construction and Developers CK (2007, 8 BALR 720) the accused was given a final…
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]. Go to: 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 jungle infested 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. While a great many labour law decisions are based on whether the employer’s actions were ‘reasonable’ fathoming what this means is extremely difficult because the concept of reasonableness…
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 the case of NUFAWSA obo Matiti vs Svencraft cc (2007, 3 BALR 220) the employee, a shop steward was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing where he was…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. Dereliction of duty is a charge that is tempting for employers to use especially when they are angry with the employee concerned. This is because: the phrase ‘dereliction…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. This article first appeared in The Star. The Labour Relations Act (LRA) allows employers to dismiss employees for reasons of operational requirements (retrenchment). However, the LRA’s provisions make…
Employer’s right to dismiss now even weaker 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]. When an employer fires an employee for dishonesty, constant late coming, absenteeism, poor work performance or other serious infringement it normally intends for the…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. I was recently asked by an employer to assist with preparing for a Labour Court review case. The employer had dismissed the employee for theft amounting to R11000…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za. This article first appeared in The Star. Employers are still frequently losing at CCMA and bargaining councils in cases relating to fixed-term contracts. The reason for this is…
Whose interests are paramount – employer’s or employee’s? BY lvan lsraelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on 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…
Do Not Dilly Dally In Bringing Disciplinary Charges BY lvan lsraelstam, Chief Executive of Labour Law Management Consulting. He may be contacted on 0828522973 or on e-mail address: [email protected]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za A vitally important part of maintaining management prerogative is the implementation of effective discipline. In order to optomise the corrective effect of discipline…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za South African labour law strongly protects people employed in South Africa. Furthermore, our courts do not easily give up jurisdiction to foreign courts. When a foreign embassy…
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. This article first appeared in The Star. Section 188 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) gives the employer the onus of proving that it has been procedurally and…
A FINAL WARNING TO EMPLOYERS: Don’t misuse final warnings 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. Employers too often misuse disciplinary warnings or avoid using them at all because they are unsure of how the…
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. This article first appeared in The Star. The CCMA is constantly overloaded with cases hearing in excess of 170 000 cases a year. This can result in backlogs…
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]. Go to: www.labourlawadvice.co.za This article first appeared in The Star. An employee is entitled, in terms of Section 77(3) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, to ask either the…
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]. This article first appeared in The Star. Go to: http://www.labourlawadvice.co.za It has become highly contentious as to whether second generation outsourcing falls under section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, the…