Abstract
Employers perceive South African employment laws to be overly burdensome, particularly owing to the manner in which disciplinary hearings are conducted, and the stringent pre-dismissal requirements of the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) for arbitration proceedings. Consequently, many employers have resorted to engaging in unnecessary, detailed and long drawn-out disciplinary procedures in an attempt to align themselves with CCMA requirements, as opposed to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 in relation to disciplinary hearing procedures. Some employers have even incorporated these procedures into their collective agreements with trade unions in their respective workplaces in an attempt to avoid the CCMA. Here, employers are subjected to the same rigorous and legalistic processes during arbitration, as CCMA commissioners seem to be fixated on formalised processes, and expect employers to follow their formalised standards as a way of proving that dismissal was fair in terms of both procedure and substance...
M.Com. (Employment Relations)