Chowan v Associated Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd & others
By Miles Chennells – Maserumule Corporate Employment Law
May 2018
In its decision in Chowan v Associated Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd & others (2241/16 23/3/2018), the Gauteng Local Division High Court awarded delictual damages to Adila Chowan, former group financial manager of Associated Motor Holdings (AMH), who had been referred to by the chief executive officer (CEO) of Imperial Holdings Ltd, Mark Lamberti, as “a female, employment equity” candidate and ended up being dismissed.
Damages were awarded on the basis of common law delictual principles and not in terms of labour law legislation. Chowan chose not to rely on the protection provided by the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995 (LRA) and the Employment Equity Act, 55 of 1998 (EEA), but instead on the actiolegis Aquilia, for pure economic loss, and the actioiniuriarum, for injuries to her reputation and dignity. The court will deal with the issue of quantum of damages separately to the issue of liability.
The facts of the case are as follows:
Read more: Damages for Referring to an Employee as “A Female Employment Equity” candidate.
South Africa’s Labour Relations Act (LRA) sets out clear guidelines that employers must follow when it comes to dealing fairly with cases of employee dismissal for incapacity. Employers cannot simply dismiss an employee for being incapacitated and each case requires careful consideration of all requirements.
This is according to Nicol Myburgh, Head of HR business unit at leading HR and HCM solutions provider CRS Technologies.
Myburgh says Schedule 8 of the LRA offers guidelines for employers in cases of dismissal for poor work performance and in cases of dismissal arising from ill health or injury.
The capacity of an employee is identified as one of three reasonable/fair grounds for dismissal, the others being misconduct and section 189 more commonly known as retrenchments. Incapacity could be for two different reasons:
Recruitment Marketing in South Africa
The fact that South Africa sits with one of the highest unemployment rates yet in the (2017 Deloittes Human Capital Trends Report 81% of SA executives confirm that talent acquisition is one of their biggest challenges, is an interesting paradox!A case in point is the growing demand for critical scarce skills in Information Technology (developers, architects, QA testers) as an increasing number of companies become more digitized. This LinkedIn article reveals how just in the retail sector alone, there has been a radical shift in organisations competing for engineering and IT talent to meet their online shopping business model requirements.
Companies need to
Very few managers have had the privilege of being the head of a team in which everyone gets along splendidly and not a single person rubs anyone else up the wrong way. Such a team is almost as far removed from reality as a married couple who never fights.
Most managers have encountered at least one person in their team whom they simply could not stand. The employee has the uncanny ability to irritate you by merely being present. They find your buttons and keep pushing them, incessantly.
Fatima van Toorn, labour specialist and owner of FvT HR Consulting, says that in many instances the manager and an employee are at odds because of poor work performance. Some people show their best side during the interview, but once in the job, their attitude changes.
In South Africa’s competitive job market, presenting a well-written CV is not only sensible, but shrewd.
Employers are increasingly frustrated by poorly constructed CVs that waste their time. Laborious, cluttered CVs with lazy typo’s and spelling mistakes – these are a few of the things that contribute to missed opportunities.
So what kinds of misunderstandings devalue a CV?
Read more: The CV -Lipstick on a pig & other popular misunderstandings
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