Stuff Employers Should Know

Friend of the show, Attorney Samantha Walker, takes us through the intricacies of disciplining Company Directors who are also Employees or Shareholders of the same Company.  

BGD chats to Adri Louw about suspending an unvaccinated employee and a case where the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) had to decide whether the certificate of a traditional healer could be equated with a medical certificate for the purposes of sick leave. 

South Africa’s diverse cultural heritage is the spotlight in todays episode of Stuff Employers Should Know!

Case Law:
Kievits Kroon Country Estate (Pty) Ltd v Mmoledi and Others [2014] 35 ILJ 209 (SCA)
NUM & another v Samancor Ltd (Tubatse Ferrochrome) & others [2011] 11 BLLR 1041 (SCA) 

In a recent award the CCMA confirmed that a mandatory vaccination policy can be enforced by employers. But is it so simple? BGD chats to Health and Safety Executive, Duncan Carlise, about the implementation and application of mandatory vaccination policies. 

How do employers deal with "The Holiday Hangover", or more specifically, employees who fail to return to work or are deemed to have deserted their employment?

BGD (who is stuck in quarantine) discusses the key element required to deem an employee to have deserted their employment and what to do if the employee actually returns even after the employment relationship was terminated. 

Employee’s sharing their pay slips and other conditions of their employment with their fellow employee’s can cause much unhappiness and disruption in an employer’s workplace where discrepancies in earnings may exist. But can an employer take action against an employee for doing so? And is it a breach of confidentiality? 

It is an employers nightmare, the Sheriff of the court arrives at your place of business and starts writing up company assets against a writ of execution, on a judgement or award they never new existed or even happened. 

Attorney, Samantha Walker, joins us again to discuss what employers should know if this happens to them. 

Often employers require employees to be on standby and avail themselves at a moment’s notice. So… what is the deal with standby allowances? 

Attorney and Industrial Relations Specialist, Shameera Angamia, explains how standby allowances work and when they are required to be paid.  

The Protection of Personal Information Act (or POPI Act) is now part of South African business and employers are being bombarded daily with terrifying mixed messages of what
this means for their business and the consequences of non compliance. 

To help us dissect what employers really need to know about truly being POPI compliant, we are joined by the National
POPI and PAIA Manager and Attorney – Samantha Walker from LabourNet.

Having a case dismissed at the CCMA is cause for relief for the employers as responding parties. But does the case being dismissed by the CCMA mean the dispute has really gone away?

In this episode we discuss the recent Labour Court cases of Glencore Operations SA (Pty) Ltd v CCMA and Others (JR 1963/19) [2021],and Solomons v Phokela NO and Others (JR99/2021) [2021], where the Court provided new guidance on the dismissal of matters by commissioners and cover the directive issued by the CCMA to its commissioners as a result of these two cases. 

As we fast approach the holiday season many employers encourage employees to take their leave during this time or even choose to shut down their business during this time.  Should the employer decide to shut down their operations can they force employees to use their accrued leave entitlement during this time?