WHEN DOES AN EMPLOYEE HAVE A REASONABLE EXPECTATION
FOR RENEWAL OF A FIXED TERM CONTRACT
An employee who refuses to enter into a fixed term contract cannot rely
on his refusal to claim that he had been dismissed and that he should
have been offered a permanent position. Similarly, where there is the no
evidence that a verbal offer had been made to extend the fixed term
contract, a claim by an employee fails. The court has also made a finding
that where employees entered into a fixed term contract for the
completion of a project the project must be specified as a failure to do so
may mean that the contract is, in fact, one of permanent employment.
RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS IN A CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT
The court has confirmed that the contract of employment contains
reciprocal rights and obligations. Employees are under an obligation to
work and employers to pay for those services. When employees withdraw
their service an employer is entitled to implement a no work no pay
benefit rule.
SHOP STEWARDS
Although the principle that a shop steward should without fear or
favour pursue the right of members of the union. This does not entitle a
shop steward to act on an “anything goes” basis. Assaults and threats
would not be acceptable.
CONSISTENCY OF A RULE
When an employee posted a comment on her own website a reference to
the government as “monkeys” and President Zuma as a “stupid” on a
private Facebook page and outside of working hours that employee was
dismissed. However, 6 co-workers how liked the comment were only
given a final written warning. If the employer considered the conduct as
racist then all employees should have been subjected to the same
sanction and the rule was therefore not consistently applied.