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TimesLIVE Premium reports that the dismissal of a former Woolworths employee, who allegedly breached company policies by failing to disclose a personal relationship with a colleague and being dishonest when questioned about it, has been found to be substantively unfair.
The CCMA made this finding in February after the referral of an unfair dismissal by Molefe Lavet Mokoena in December last year. According to the store manager, Simphiwe Mabuza, if an employee was in a relationship in the same store, that employee was supposed to disclose it. Mokoena, who was employed as operations manager at a Woolworths store in Maponya Mall in Soweto, was accused of being in a relationship with Daisy, who later threatened Lufuno Tshiovhe, a contractor who was stationed at the same store and whom Mokoena was proposing to have a relationship with. “Unfortunately, Daisy was not called as a witness and since the applicant (Mokoena) disputed being in a relationship with her (or with Tshiovhe), I find that the respondent (Woolworths) failed to discharge the onus to prove the existence of any of the relationships,” the CCMA arbitrator noted. She said Mokoena was dismissed for being dishonest when he was asked about his personal relationship with a colleague, but the employer had failed to prove the existence of the alleged relationship as well as existence of the rule regarding disclosing any personal relationship. As Mokoena preferred compensation instead of reinstatement due to intolerable working conditions, the CCMA ordered that he be compensated with four months’ salary.
Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ernest Mabuza at TimesLIVE Premium (subscriber access only)
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