CARMEL RICKARD: Taken to the cleaners
Judge addresses ‘offensive’ provisions in an employment contract that stripped away basic legal rights while not properly informing the employee
More than 20 years after SA’s constitution became the highest law in the country, some employers still demand that their staff agree to contracts that are blatantly illegal and infringe on their fundamental rights. A fortnight ago I wrote about Pharmaco, the company that made its staff sign contracts agreeing to be medically tested at the behest of the business’s bosses. The labour court called this disgraceful and unlawful. This week another illegal contract is under the spotlight. In the case of Lead Laundry & Catering against Peragalathen Chetty, Judge Brian Spilg was so outraged by the contract the company had made Chetty and other staff sign that he had the agreements referred to the Law Society of the Northern Provinces. He wants the society to decide whether the professional integrity of the drafter, presumably an attorney, was compromised. Lead Laundry’s staff had to agree to a package structured in a way that amounted to "indenturing", said the judge. Part of the monthly sa...
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