The Labour Court has drawn a line in the sand against employers who disregard arbitration awards given in favour of dismissed employees, with a Super Spar manager facing a R1-million fine if he fails to reinstate an employee who was unfairly dismissed.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration last year ordered Super Spar Polofields to reinstate Kelvin Moyo after it found he was unfairly dismissed, in an award handed down in March 2022.
Despite this order, the company refused to allow Moyo to resume his duties, forcing him to turn to the Labour Court for recourse.
Judge Graham Moshoana hauled Super Spar Polofields director Magnus Loubser over the coals, finding him to be in contempt of a lawful order and imposed a fine of R1-million on him should he not reinstate Moyo before the end of this month.
“This court does not hesitate to loudly state that the opposition of the present application is frivolous and vexatious. The contemnors came to this court, sadly duly assisted by their counsel, with flimsy and feeble technical defences.
At a point, during the submissions in court, this court afforded their counsel an opportunity to submit to court any authority for the proposition that failure to make an allegation of personal service of the order, leads to a refusal of a contempt order even in the face of uncontested evidence of awareness of the offended order,” Moshoana said.
“The conduct of the contemnors is one that suggest harassment of Moyo, who is armed with a valid and enforceable order, for fatigued and flimsy reasons. This court cannot countenance a situation where a party is allowed the space to hoist technical defences in order to avoid compliance with court orders. As a mark of displeasure, this court shall not hesitate to make costs orders when such conduct is unabashedly flaunted,” Moshoana said.
