Unmanned breathalysers safeguard security personnel from the threat of retaliatory violence

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Compulsory alcohol testing is often put into place in hazardous industries such as mining, manufacturing and transport as a safety measure. However, there are certain challenges with the typical approach of using a manned breathalyser. Security personnel administering the tests often live in the same communities as the workers they are being asked to police, and this is problematic on a number of levels. Those being tested are often resentful, and if they have in fact been drinking frequently, resort to physical violence against the guards. Utilising an unmanned breathalyser system that can be integrated into access control or time and attendance solutions solves this issue and provides a number of other benefits.

The Operational Health and Safety (OHS) Act mandates a zero-tolerance approach to intoxication or the consumption of alcohol in the workplace. To prevent contravention of this Act, many organisations implement compulsory alcohol testing before workers are permitted entry. While in theory this would seem to be the ideal solution, the reality is that it is often not as effective as organisations would like to believe. This is down to one thing: the human element.

The security guards doing the testing are seen as the ‘bad guys’ and those being tested often threaten or actually physically harm the guards once they are away from the safety of the workplace.

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What is Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value and How Can We Defend it?

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On the 8^th of July 2019, the New York Times published an article which speaks to the core of the gender pay gap in sport. The male and female teams achieved opposite results; the USA Women’s Soccer Team won the 2019 FIFA World Cup (Their 4^th World Cup victory) while their male counterparts lost the final of their Regional Championship against Mexico. This contradiction of fortunes has once again brought to the fore the issue of gender pay inequality, not only in sport but other professions as well. The article states that the USA Women’s Soccer Team have in the past campaigned for equal pay (equal to their male counterparts) and currently the team has “collected more trophies and begun to produce more revenue than the men”. Two examples of this inequality are:

• The women’s team received a bonus of $90 000 for reaching the quarterfinals. If the men had reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 men’s FIFA World Cup they would have received a bonus of $550 000.
• The USA women’s team received $4 million dollars for winning the 2019 Women’s FIFA World Cup whereas France received $38 million for winning the 2018 men’s FIFA World Cup. This is more than the $30 million total prize money that was awarded during the women’s World Cup.

The combination of superior results and revenue generation are the most compelling pieces of evidence that this inequality should not persist.

Although this is only one example of pay inequality, income and pay inequality continues to persist in various shapes and forms across the world. South Africa, as a result of the legacy of apartheid, has a number of inequality challenges and disparities such as employment and equal pay. The Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value Legislation stipulates the grounds on which it is decided whether discriminating between two employees’ levels of pay is justified or not.

The essence of this legislation is that

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Gaps in the law a vexed problem

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The Labour Relations Act (LRA) was developed by negotiation between government, employers and trade unions. Due to the fact that parties had substantially different agendas they were often unable to agree on a number of important details of law which were therefore omitted from the LRA. Some detail as to the intention of the law is provided in the form of codes of good practice. For example, included in Schedule 8 of the LRA is The Code of Good Practice: Dismissal which guides parties as to procedures and principles that should be followed.

However, despite these codes the LRA still lacks some important detail such as in what circumstances an employer may fairly increase a penalty imposed on an employee.

For example, in the case of Fourie vs Capitec Bank (2005, 1 BALR 29) Fourie was dismissed for failing to take out arrear cards. The arbitrator found that the employee had previously been given a final warning for the very same incident of poor performance. The dismissal was therefore found to be unfair and the employer was required to pay the employee compensation equivalent to 6 months’ remuneration. However, other decisions have allowed such penalty revisions in exceptional circumstances.

While it is clear from the above that we cannot take any one case decision as gospel employers are still advised to keep up with case law in their efforts to discover what fair treatment really means. This is because:

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