South Africa’s labour legislation changes periodically and case law decisions often have the effect of changing the law.
As management at all levels make daily decisions affecting the myriad of employee rights, all managers need to be able to take the complex, increasing and constantly changing labour laws in to account when making their decisions when it comes to their team members and employees.
Changes across the law impact labour law
A case in point is the Constitutional Court’s decision to legalise the private use of dagga. This has had a profound effect on the control of the use of this mind-altering drug at the workplace.
Managers need to be brought up to speed as regards the relationship between workplace safety and the use of intoxicating substances. In the recent case of Envers vs Barloworld (JA 86/22, 2024) the Labour Appeal Court ordered the employer to pay R1 036 794.00 in compensation for her automatically unfair dismissal due to her private use of marijuana.
The findings of the court in this case are complex and reflect just how important it is that managers be kept up to speed.
Despite frequent court and CCMA decisions made against employers, they often fail to see the importance of managerial training aimed at effective and legally complaint workplace management. We have represented countless employers taken to the CCMA and bargaining councils because a manager mishandled a shop floor grievance or disciplinary matter and the employee was unfairly dismissed.
Opening the door practical training
Two key factors that discourage employers from training their managers in managing the workplace in line with labour law are:
- The financial cost of such training courses; and
- The reluctance to take managers out of the workplace because of their vital role in ensuring workplace productivity.
A solution to this dilemma is an inexpensive labour law video series that the managers can access at intervals suitable to their busy schedules.
The innovative video series WALKING THE LABOUR LAW TIGHTROPE provides this very solution. Its 48 chapters average 10 minutes in length and can therefore easily be watched as and when the manager has time. This greatly informative yet very engaging and practical video series provides practical and user-friendly learning through the use of an animated case study that runs throughout the 48 chapters. Each chapter contains clear and important advice needed by workplace management on the basics of labour law on a very wide range of topics.
A further advantage is that the manager can, for a full year, easily go back to any of the 48 videos for purposes of refresher training or in order to access information on how to deal with a current workplace issue. This solves the problem of managers forgetting what they have learned.
This video subscription offering helps management to walk the shaky labour law tightrope and to run the workplace productively without falling into the labour law abyss.
Learn more about this groundbreaking video series, WALKING THE NEW LABOUR LAW TIGHTROPE here.
