CARMEL RICKARD: Transnet’s fraught workwear rules
Court rules against Transnet’s ban on employees wearing Numsa T-shirts to work — and sets aside any pending disciplinary actions based on the ban
For many people, ditching their uniform is one of the good things about finally leaving school. They imagine they will never again be told what they may or may not wear. But, of course, they often are: uniforms, or rules about clothes, are a more important part of real life than young adults realise when they finish school. At Transnet, rules about workwear have proved fraught. And the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has been at the sharp end of the dispute. Transnet has, in the past four years, issued two successive dress codes. In 2014, its "corporate and protective clothing policy" banned anyone from wearing "political party clothing or nonrecognised union regalia" during work hours. Numsa was not then, and is still not, recognised by Transnet, so this rule severely affected its members, to the benefit of management-recognised unions. In 2015, the policy was revised, and all staff were banned from wearing "clothing or any regalia of any political party or trade union...
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