EXTERNAL PRESSURE DOES NOT JUSTIFY DISMISSAL

Employers need to understand that, in order to be free to fire employees who deserve dismissal, employers need to understand the difference between fair and unfair dismissal.

“Procedurally fair” relates to whether the employee was given a fair hearing.

Whether a dismissal is “substantively fair” relates to the fairness of the dismissal decision itself. Specifically, the employer has to show that:

· The employee really did break the rule

· The rule was a fair one

· The penalty of dismissal was a fitting one in the light of the severity of the offence. AND

· The employee knew or should have known the rule.

In the case of White vs Pinnacle Point Investments (Pty) ltd (2008, 1 BALR 91) the employer discovered, after he joined, that White was in dispute with his previous employer which also happened to be the bank of the new employer. The new employer then dismissed the employee for the employee’s refusal to divulge the true reason for the dispute with the old employer.

The arbitrator decided that:

· The true reason for the dismissal was pressure from the bank on the employer

· The dismissal was procedurally and substantively unfair

· The employer was to compensate the employee for the unfair dismissal.

The outcome of this case shows that employers will lose if they merely take the word of a third party as to the guilt of an employee or if they succumb to pressure from the third party to dismiss the employee.