Employers cannot “buy their way out” of retrenchment procedures

In the recent South African Labour Appeal Court (“LAC”) decision of Total South Africa (Pty) Ltd v Meyer and others, the LAC, in addressing the issue of whether the decision to grant maximum compensation for a substantively and procedurally unfair retrenchment was exercised judicially, made significant remarks in respect of an employer’s obligation to comply with…

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High Court dismisses application to set aside B-BBEE Commission’s findings: lessons for stakeholders

A recent South African High Court decision explores some interesting issues regarding the scope of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission’s (the “Commission”) investigative powers, as well as what constitutes a fronting practice. CRRC E Loco Supply (“CRRC”) was incorporated as a joint venture between CSR: Zhuzhou Electrical Locomotives (a Chinese-owned entity) (“CSR”) and Matsete Basadi Consortium…

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POPIA Compliance

The Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect as of 1 July 2020, with a grace period of a year in which any person or organisation who keeps any type of records relating to the personal information of anyone, unless those records are subject to other legislation which protects such information more stringently,  must ensure that…

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Mandatory vaccinations

The legal pathway has been created for employers to make it mandatory for staff to be vaccinated and employers who decided to make the vaccination mandatory may experience some significant challenges especially when it comes to employees refusing to be vaccinated.   Mandatory vaccination has brought out to some important questions: • Is a risk assessment a…

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The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited v Nombulelo Cynthia Chiloane (Case No. JA85/18) [2020] ZALAC (5 November 2020)

Employee was given notice to attend a Disciplinary Hearing for misconduct.  On the day that the employee received the notice to attend the Disciplinary Hearing, she tendered her “resignation with immediate effect”.  The employer assumed that the employee had to serve four-weeks’ notice, the employee argued that her letter of “resignation with immediate effect” ended…

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