Dairibord salesmen fired for inflating prices

be given a computer-generated invoice to hand to the clients for payment. The customer would pay the amount stated on the invoice.
Chamarime and Muchenje however, held back the proper invoices and gave customers hand written batch control forms with inflated prices. As a result, Chamarime and Muchenje appeared before a disciplinary committee facing charges of dishonesty.
They were found guilty and subsequently fired. They appealed to the Labour Court arguing that DZL failed to apply the proper meaning of the word “dishonesty” as defined in the code of conduct. They further argued that a named milkman who had in fact been dishonest had confessed in writing to the crime.
Chamarime and Muchenje also told the court that their dismissal was unlawful because the code used was not applicable at the time of the offence. DZL argued that the Labour Court had already decided on the matter that procedural issues raised by the two were without merit. It submitted that the duo admitted to committing the offences and paid back what they had generated from the crime.
Labour Court president Ms Betty Chidziva noted it could not be a coincidence that Chamarime and Muchenje overlooked reconciling their invoices with money they received.
“This procedure was supposed to be followed so as to enable them to submit the correct totals when accounting back to DZL. The two paid back what they had overcharged. If they were innocent they would not have paid back the money.”
She said it was Chamarime and Muchenje’s duty to deliver invoices to the customers not the milkman. Ms Chidziva said the issue of unlawful dismissal raised by the two had been decided by Labour Court president Lilian Hove who ruled in DZL’s favour.
She said because of the evidence before the court, the dismissal was lawful.