We have published the 19th issue of the 2021 Labour Law Sibergramme, in which John Grogan deals with the following cases:
Spar Eastern Cape Distribution Centre v Transport, Retail and General Workers Union and others
(Labour Court case P30/21 dated 22/09/2021) (Rawjee AJ)
The Labour Court had no hesitation in awarding costs in this matter, this time on a punitive scale.
The respondent union, which goes under the acronym THORN, called a strike after following the procedures required by the LRA. The strike was therefore protected. But the conduct in which the strikers then indulged was not.
Spar Eastern Cape Distribution Centre v Warnier & others
(CCMA case no. ECPER2551/21 dated 28/07/21) (Commissioner B Busakwe)
This was not the end of the strikers’ woes. While the contempt judgment was pending, parallel proceedings under section 188A of the LRA unfolded, with SPAR calling for their dismissal. The same employees now had to explain why they should not be dismissed.
Union for Police Security and Corrections Organisation v South African Custodial Management (Pty) Ltd and others
(CCT 192/20) [2021] ZACC 26 (7 September 2021), unreported (Mogoeng CJ, Jafta J, Khampepe J, Madlanga J, Majiedt J, Mhlatla J, Pillay AJ, Theron J, Tlaletsi AJ & Tshiqi J)
In this judgment, the highest court could barely conceal its irritation with unmotivated costs orders which continued to be handed out by the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts after it had confirmed in several judgments that costs do not automatically follow the result in labour and employment disputes.
This matter was one of many that have progressed from those courts to the highest court with appeals on the merits of and against costs orders.
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