“This virus is unprecedented in our lifetime and requires an unprecedented response” (António Guterres, UN Secretary-General) Most of us will celebrate the day we are offered a COVID-19 vaccination, but here in South Africa as overseas it seems inevitable that a significant number of people will refuse to be vaccinated. The reasons given for this…
“Domestic employees” are now covered under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) and will now be entitled for compensation from the Compensation Fund in the event they are injured or contract diseases while on duty. The new benefits Note: The benefits set out below are recorded in summary only and awards are…
“…an employee who gives short notice in violation of the contract … may be obliged to serve out the notice period” (Quoted in the judgment below) It’s an age-old workplace dodge – threatened with a disciplinary hearing and fearing a guilty verdict, an employee resigns with immediate effect and walks out the door with a…
(N.B. The increases highlighted below are extracted from the Employment and Labour Minister’s announcement of 9 February 2021, and emphasis has been supplied where helpful in enabling quick identification of your employment sector. Comment is in square brackets) “The National Minimum Wage (NMW) for each ordinary hour worked has been increased from R20,76 to R21,69 per hour [a 4.5%…
“…it has been suggested that bullying refers to any unfavourable or offensive conduct on the part of a person or persons, which has the effect of creating a hostile workplace environment… In these terms, bullying includes a wide range of insulting, demeaning or intimidating behaviour that lowers their self-esteem or self-confidence of an employee” (quoted…
A recent CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration) ruling, in which an employee’s dismissal for smoking cannabis before work was set aside and he was re-instated, has garnered a lot of media attention. Unfortunately, some of the resultant articles and headlines may have given the inaccurate impression that employees are now free to report…
“O brave new world” (Shakespeare) The COVID-19 pandemic will doubtless lead to many new developments on the legal front. For example, with widespread employee retrenchment now an unfortunate reality in our struggling economy, all employers, employees and trade unions should know of an important new Labour Court decision validating the use of remote conferencing for…
If you are one of the many employees retrenched or put on short pay or unpaid leave as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown, you will be wondering how to cover the monthly instalments on your mortgage bond and other credit agreements. You have no doubt heard of the “payment holidays” banks are…
“The secret of crisis management is not good vs. bad, it’s preventing the bad from getting worse” (Andy Gilman) We can only guess at how the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak will end, but let’s all take whatever concrete steps we can right now to lessen its impact on our personal lives, on our businesses, and on…
“…the default position is that an executive director or a senior employee may not carry on business activities which fall within the scope of his company’s business during the time when he serves as director or works as employee. The default position however changes on resignation.” (Extract from judgment below) What happens if relations between…