2023 Amendments to the CCMA rules
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (“CCMA”) is the first port of call for the majority of disputes concerning the employment relationship and serves not only as a forum aimed at facilitating amicable and expeditious resolutions to employment disputes but also as a court of first instance for adversarial proceedings arising between, amongst others, more...
Mandatory Workplace Vaccination Polices: So it Begins…
On 21 January 2022 the CCMA delivered its findings in the unfair dismissal dispute of Mulderij v The Goldrush Group (case number: GAJB-24054-21), where it confirmed that the dismissal of an employee pursuant to a refusal to adhere to an employer’s mandatory workplace vaccination policy (“MWVP”) may be considered substantively fair. It is the first more...
Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in the workplace
On 11 June 2021, the Department of Employment and Labour published an Amended Consolidated Direction on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Certain Workplaces (“Directions”). The Directions provide various guidelines to employers pertaining to social distancing, the wearing of cloth masks, COVID-19 symptom screening and the importance of adequate ventilation in the workplace. Most importantly, more...
Maintenance: Ignorance of the law is not an excuse
As the age old saying goes “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse”. The position under South African law is clear - both parents have a duty to maintain their children according to their respective means, until such a time that the children become self-supporting. The fact that a parent is not in contact more...
Dismissal versus retrenchment due to restructuring: Operational or Unfair?
A recent Constitutional Court (“CC”) judgment has allowed employers to breathe a collective sigh of relief in the comfort that they cannot be threatened with unfair dismissal proceedings where an employee has unreasonably rejected an employer’s proposals aimed at avoiding retrenchments, and where the employer commences to dismiss the employee by reason of its operational more...
The long walk to freedom: the ‘cans’ and ‘still cant’s’ of the Alert Level 2 Regulations
On Tuesday, 18 August 2020, at 0h00, the South African national lockdown was downgraded from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2. Regulations prescribing the legal parameters of the Alert Level 2 restrictions and allowances were published on the same day. For many South Africans, the Alert Level 2 Regulations (“the Regulations”) provide the first more...
COVID-19 Update – Alert Level 3 Stays in place (with further restrictions) as we prepare for “the storm”:
His address did not declare an escalation of the alert level currently in place, as widely expected, but rather confirmed that whilst the Alert Level 3 Regulations would, for now, remain in force, that these Regulations would be further limited and refined in certain respects. The increase in the degree of restriction under the Level 3 Regulations was justified by the President as being necessary to curb the impending storm predicted early on by experts advising government
The Fortnight Ahead: Amendments to the Lockdown Regulations following its Extension:
Following the declaration by President on 15 April 2020 that the national lockdown will be extended by two weeks, various amendments to the existing lockdown Regulations were published on 16 April 2020 (“the Amendments”). These amendments will govern private and commercial transactions and restrictions until the lockdown is lifted, which for now is set as being on 01 May 2020. This article will briefly discuss the most relevant of these amendments and their impact.
The Plascon-Evans Rule and the need for a more robust approach:
It is a well-established principle that a litigious civil matter can be commenced in one of two ways, either by way of legal action or by way of application/motion. The material distinction between these two diverging paths lies in whether the ultimate adjudication of the matter is possible on a consideration of affidavits (written evidence more...
The Covid-19 Temporary Relief Scheme Refined – Recent Amendments to the Minister’s Directive:
The Covid-19 Temporary Relief Scheme (“the Scheme”) was implemented by the Department of Labour as a direct remedial response to the havoc wrecked on small to medium enterprises (“SMME’s”) by the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the Scheme has been active and functional since 26 March 2020, amendments published to the Directive responsible for the implementation of the Scheme on 08 April 2020 have clarified the application of the Scheme and have further refined its operation.
Eyes in the Sky: The Introduction of COVID-19 Contact Testing
The imposition of Covid-19 Contact Testing almost certainly limits the right to privacy. Whether this limitation can be considered unconstitutional is a question best left to the courts for adjudication, however, given the novel nature of the pandemic and the checks and balances built into Chapter 3 to prevent its abuse, it is highly likely that the contact Testing programme will pass constitutional muster in the event that it is tested.
Relief for Parents: Clarity on the movement of Children between Persons with Co-Parenting Responsibilities:
Co-parents can now share parenting responsibilities and rights during Covid lock down