The Woman of Stature Foundation is inviting female entrepreneurs to attend the Professional Collective Leadership Summit 2025 on Thursday, 2 October 2025 at Hotel Sky in Sandton.
This one-day event will give entrepreneurs the practical tools, skills and inspiration to grow successful and sustainable businesses.
This event is a chance to connect with influential and iconic businesswomen who will impart their wisdom for building a business for success.
What you can expect:
Read more: Women’s Leadership Summit in Sandton to empower female entrepreneurs for business success
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into workforce planning is reshaping professional practices across industries, including the specialised field of psycho-legal practice within industrial and organisational psychology (IOP). In South Africa, where psycho-legal assessments play a critical role in legal proceedings, particularly in cases involving workplace injuries, loss of earnings, and psychological impacts, AI offers transformative opportunities to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and inclusivity. Industrial and Organisational Psychologists (IOPs) in South Africa serve as expert witnesses, conduct psycho-legal assessments, perform financial and earnings analyses, adhere to strict ethical standards, and contribute to the development of professional guidelines, as outlined by the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa (SIOPSA) (SIOPSA, 2022). This article, grounded in peer-reviewed academic studies, explores how AI influences psycho-legal practice, identifies opportunities and risks of AI-driven assessments, and addresses ethical issues and governance frameworks. Tailored to the South African context, the article proposes practical solutions to ensure AI enhances psycho-legal practice while upholding ethical and professional standards. Part 1 focuses on the context and AI’s influence across key streams, while Part 2, to be published next week, will delve into opportunities, risks, ethical concerns, and governance.
Employers too often assume that employees who have alcohol in their systems at the workplace automatically deserve to be fired. While alcohol related offences can sometimes merit dismissal this is not always the case. For example, where the employee has clinically been shown to be an alcoholic, treatment rather than punishment should be implemented due to the employee’s incapacity.
In the case of Black Mountain vs CCMA and others (2005 1 BLLR 0001) the employee was dismissed for causing damage while drunk driving. The CCMA arbitrator overturned the dismissal. The employer applied to the Labour Court for the arbitrator’s decision to be reviewed. However, the Labour Court, after looking at the employer’s policy in regard to alcohol related infringements, decided that, as the employer should have allowed the employee to go for rehabilitation the dismissal had been unfair. The employer was required to reinstate the employee and to give him back pay for a period of 18 months plus interest.
Incapacity is not the only factor that could render unfair the dismissal of an employee with alcohol in his system.
Where an employee successfully alleges that his/her resignation was involuntary and was coerced by the employer, the resignation becomes a constructive dismissal.
In order to convince an arbitrator or judge that unfair constructive dismissal has in fact taken place the employee must prove a number of things including that there was no reasonable alternative at the time but for the employee to resign in order to escape the unbearable circumstances.
This duty of the employee must not be simplistically interpreted. Passing this test will depend a great deal on whether, under the circumstances at the time, the employee could reasonably have been expected to stay on in the employer’s employ for purposes of referring the unfair labour practice dispute. Truly unendurable circumstances would make such a route unreasonable.
In the case of Makombe vs Cape Conference of the Seventh Day Adventists (Lex Info 28 March 2025 Labour Court case number CO4/2023.) the Labour Court found that employers are obligated to attend properly to serious grievances lodged by employees.
I thought it was time to update you on the mythical, much in-demand, but rarely sighted, perfect candidate - previously known as the Purple Squirrel.
This term has been used for years by recruiters to describe this rarest of candidates: the one with ideal qualifications, spot on experience, under 35 years of age, no salary expectations, and the ability to teleport to interviews.
But it’s 2025 now, and we’ve evolved.
Meet 2025’s Ideal Candidate: The SavannaSkillStacker™
A mythical creature. A unicorn in running shoes. A coffee-powered machine of productivity. This is what the ‘Purple Squirrel’ has morphed into:
Read more: Move Over Purple Squirrel! Recruiters Now Want the SavannaSkillStacker™
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