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GroundUp reports that three workers who were dismissed by their employer for refusing to take polygraph tests are heading to the Labour Court next month.
The workers will be asking the court to set aside a CCMA arbitration award, claiming it was “grossly flawed”. The workers also want to be reinstated. In January 2018 Silveray Stationery Company noticed stock losses of about R170,000 and then asked 12 employees to take polygraph tests. This was intended to be used as a “tool to assist investigations” and to “narrow or focus on a potential group or area to conduct investigations.” Three of the workers repeatedly refused to take the polygraph tests. After receiving final written warnings, the workers were dismissed for breaching their employment contracts and insubordination. The workers took the matter to the CCMA in 2019, which ruled in April 2019 that the workers’ continuous “refusal to undergo polygraph test[ing] was serious, deliberate and persistent” and that their dismissals were fair. But, Professor Colin Tredoux, a professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town, testified at the CCMA that polygraphs were psychological tests and that they were scientifically unreliable. In his view, polygraph tests were unable to definitively detect whether someone is telling the truth or lying, since deception was not the only thing that could trigger a “lie” on a polygraph test. “What they measure is physiological arousal. They measure anxiety; this is probably the best way to characterise what they actually measure,” he said to GroundUp. The workers’ application will be heard in the Labour Court in August. In its documents submitted to court, Silveray argues that “polygraph testing was important to prevent stock losses” and that “compulsory testing was a reasonable command”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Liezl Human at GroundUp
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page