BusinessTech writes that where employees possess information that would enable an employer to identify wrongdoers and those employees fail to come forward, they are guilty of “derivative misconduct”.  

This is according to Hugo Pienaar and Nomlayo Mabhena of legal firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, who explained that such conduct violated the trust upon which the employment relationship was founded.  “This concept was confirmed in a recent case where the Labour Court held that an employee bound implicitly by a duty of good faith towards the employer breaches that duty by remaining silent about knowledge possessed by the employee regarding the business interests of the employer being improperly undermined.  The court further held, that on general principle, a breach of the duty of good faith can justify dismissal,” said the experts.

• Read this report in full at BusinessTech

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