| The labour court have over
turned an order by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) that
instructed Volkswagen SA to re-employ 1300 workers who had been dismissed from the
manufacturers plant about a year ago. The CCMA ruling, which found that VW SA had been
substantially justified in dismissing the workers for disciplinary reasons, but had erred
in the way in which they had effected the firings. |
This left many employers in the
local economy in a quandary, with the skittish rulings of the CCMA, the first port of call
in the resolution of labour disputes, doing nothing to increase confidence in the
unbelievably complex realm of labour law that has developed around the three labour acts
that have controlled that market since 1996. VW SA appealed against the CCMA ruling, and
was vindicated by the labour court ruling on Wednesday. The workers will take the matter
to the labour appeal court, but we do not fancy their chances there, either. |
