A now former employee at a Woolworths store in the Durban area who was fired after she called two black cashiers dumb, scored a partial victory after the court confirmed her dismissal but ordered the store to pay her three months' salary.
The Labour Court in Durban found that while the worker’s dismissal was fair, Woolworth only gave her 15 minutes in which to prepare for her defence during her disciplinary hearing.
The court, however, questioned why the worker did not at the time ask for more time to prepare or for a postponement of the hearing.
The applicant (the worker) asked the labour court to overturn the decision reached during arbitration proceedings, where the commissioner found that her axing was fair. She wanted the labour court to rule that she be reinstated, with full back pay.
The applicant worked as a supervisor at a Woolworths outlet for a period of 28 years before she was fired. While the applicant claimed she never called the two cashiers dumb, but rather said that they are “confused”, Woolworths maintained that she did use the word “dumb” and that she thus used a language with racial undertones which justified dismissal.
Several of the staff members who heard the applicant use the word dumb testified on behalf of Woolworths. Only one staff member testified that she heard the applicant use the word “confused.”
The matter was sparked by an incident in March 2019 when a pay point controller at the outlet asked the applicant to take some trainee managers to the customer service tills for further training. The applicant said they should not come that week because she had a bunch of dumb people working at the tills that day.
Several other workers confirmed that they had heard these words spoken by the applicant and that she said she would rather wait until two specific other cashiers were on duty.
The staff were upset, and some of them complained to the human resources department about this.
An investigation ensued which resulted in all the employees involved submitting statements. This resulted in charges brought against the applicant during a disciplinary hearing, which led to her being dismissed.
One of the witnesses, also an employee, testified that there was a particular tension between Indian and black staff at this particular outlet as the black staff felt that they were being discriminated against.
She testified that the perception was that Indians were given preference in respect of appointments, promotion, and approach in general, and that they were just treated differently or better than the staff members of African origin.
It was reported that human resources were involved to defuse the tension, but the fact that some were called “dumb” against the background of the tension did not bode well with the staff.
The applicant meanwhile asked the labour court to overturn the findings that her dismissal was fair, on the basis that the arbitrator failed to consider the facts and the law relevant to her “unfair dismissal” dispute.
Acting Judge ET Mhlongo could not find fault with the fact that the applicant was fired. But he said he is persuaded that the employer did not deal properly with the requirement that the employee should be allowed reasonable time to prepare a response to the allegations.
“It cannot be accepted that 15 minutes given to the applicant by the chairperson was enough to prepare for the case.”
The judge, however, ordered that the applicant had to receive three months' salary as she was only given 15 minutes to prepare for her disciplinary hearing. He ordered Woolworths to pay this to her within a month.
Pretoria News