Duncanmec wants court-sanctioned dismissal for proven workplace racism
The Constitutional Court should adopt a position that if racism is proved in the workplace‚ dismissal should follow as a result, unless there are exceptional circumstances. This was the argument put forward by Duncanmec‚ a company manufacturing refuse-handling equipment in Johannesburg‚ in a submission to the Court on Thursday. The company dismissed eight employees in 2013 after they embarked on an unprotected strike due to an overtime dispute. The workers were not dismissed because of the unprotected strike‚ but rather for singing a struggle song in isiZulu that, in English, means: "Climb on top of the roof and tell them my mother is rejoicing when we hit the boer". The workers challenged their dismissal in the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council.
In May 2014‚ an arbitrator found that the employees had been unfairly dismissed and ordered their reinstatement with three months back-pay, instead of the 12 months they were entitled to. In July 2016‚ the Labour Cou...
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