In The Labour Court of South Africa: Held at Braamfontein Case No J869/00
In The Labour Court of South Africa: Held at Braamfontein Case No J869/00
In The Labour Court of South Africa: Held at Braamfontein Case No J869/00
AFRICA
and
LANDMAN J:
Introduction
2. Late in 1998 the IDC appreciated that its activities, which were
focussed for the main on mega projects, had changed. The IDC
*decided to look at its operational structure in order to ensure that
its resources were concentrated on its core business to enable it to
carry out its mandate. There was also concern about the costs of
doing business. The exercise was named “Alignment for
success”. A bosberaad (high level workshop or indaba) was held
at Sun City with the members of the board and the executive
committee (ie the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and head of
departments) to which I shall refer as Exco. The upshot of this
meeting was that IDC could not conduct business as usual and
would have to realign itself to meet a changed economic
environment.
Restructuring Envisaged
“4.1. Once approval has been obtained on the new structure, and the
process as set out in section three above has been completed,
all current job positions, below that of Managing Director/CEO,
will be done away with in order to facilitate the introduction of
the new structure...
5. The CEO will, within his discretion, appoint all employees at the
level of General Manager. All General Managers, in
consultation with the CEO, will, within their discretion, appoint
the first line of Management reporting directly to them....
5.2. Selection process. All interviews for positions not filled by block
appointments must be conducted in such a manner so as to
comply with all relevant legislation and must be transparent and
objective. A period of one month will be allowed, after
finalisation of the new structure, for employees to apply for
positions not filled by way of block appointments....
• Relevant qualifications.
• The length of service with the Corporation.
• Experience and potential in a particular discipline.”
Restructuring Implemented
Restructuring HR
IDC’s Submissions
uation: fairness
22. I am of the opinion that there was a need for the IDC to
restructure and that it was perfectly entitled to undertake this
process. I also accept that the restructuring, when it was finally
decided, would mean the loss of jobs. Indeed in the support
services, to which the applicants belonged, the staff numbers
would be reduced by from 284 to 195 employees; ie 89
employees would lose their jobs.
26. The second point which should be made, which Prof Rycroft
touches on, is that it should not be easier to retrench an
employee where restructuring is involved. I would add that a
retrenchment following a process of restructuring whereby an
employee applies for his or her own job must be closely
scrutinised because it ignores, sometimes unconsciously, that
an existing employee enjoys job security which will be protected
especially against nofault terminations. But placing an
employee in the position of an applicant for a job, or worse,
merely on a waiting list, creates a supplicant of the employee.
30. I am of the opinion that the process of filling the posts in the
new IDC was open to the charge of arbitrariness. The process
denied existing employees the right to present facts in support
of their retention. It was inherently flawed. So much so that it
could lead to the unfair dismissal of existing employees.
34. I accept that Mr Van Rensburg can only complain about his
nonselection for two posts. The post of Head Recruitment,
Performance, Management and Industrial Relations and the
post of IR consultant. Mr Van Rensburg was not interviewed for
the post of Head. This was in accordance with the system to
which he had made a contribution. The new post of IR
consultant stands on a slightly different footing.
37. There was also another position for a senior consultant under
Vusi Mabena’s department, but it was also not a suitable
alternative position for either applicants because it was also a
junior position that would require a salary cut in excess of R 100
000 and secondly, was meant for a person who had a
competency in financial training, which the applicants did not
have.
38. These consultant posts were not advertised. This means that Mr
Van Rensburg and Mr Wolfaardt were not allowed an
opportunity to say whether it was feasible to appoint them and
whether they would accept R100 000 pa less than they had
been earning, or to bargain for more, or persuade the IDC to
redline the post, or to outsource the post at some future time,
as was envisaged by IDC, or to let them occupy the post for a
period until it was outsourced. The applicants would have been
able to respond to the IDC’s equity policy and in particular the
absence of a plan. The applicants would also have been told of
the target of 40% black employees about which they were
unaware. There may be other topics and issues. Who can say?
No one can say. The opportunity was denied to them. The
opportunity to apply for these posts and an interview could also
have led to the exploration of other avenues. This failure means
that the dismissal of the applicants were so procedurally unfair
that they are also substantively unfair. See Ellias v Germiston
Uitgewers (Pty) Ltd t/a Evalulab (1998) 19 ILJ 314 (LC) and
Chetty v Scott SelectaShoe (1998) 19 ILJ 1465 (LC).
Appropriate remedy
49. This is a case where law and fairness requires that costs follow
the result.
Order
It is ordered that:
19.the respondent pay the costs. These costs are to include the
reserved costs and the costs of the application for discovery of
documents.
HEARING: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21 and 22 NOVEMBER 2001;
24, 25, 26, 27, and 28 JUNE 2002