adminLeonard Nyapfumbi had allegedly committed the offence while acting as a shop attendant at the company while waiting for his truck to be repaired.
Nyapfumbi was found guilty of failing to balance the books.
He appealed internally without success and then referred the matter for arbitration.
The arbitrator found that the dismissal was fair and merited. Nyapfumbi then appealed to the Labour Court, arguing that the arbitrator erred in holding that he was wrong in surrendering cash to his superior without signing for it when evidence showed the superior had manipulated the figures.
Nyapfumbi said that the arbitrator failed to give credence to the fact that he was neither trained for the job nor inducted for it.
He said there was no evidence proving the offence.
Labour Court president, Ms Loice Matanda-Moyo, noted that the documents Nyapfumbi presented to the court were indeed different from those from the computer brought by the company.
“It is also true that the person responsible for producing the computer documents was not called in to testify,” said Ms Matanda-Moyo.
“What was left before the arbitrator were figures that were not backed by oral evidence.”
Ms Matanda-Moyo pointed out that there was no evidence that the company supervisor’s figures were the correct ones.
“The arbitrator made a serious error when he dismissed appellant’s argument that he was a driver, and had not been inducted for the job that he carried out his job competently,” said Ms Matanda-Moyo.
She said without evidence from the accounts clerk, there was no evidence on a balance of probability warranting Nyapfumbi’s conviction.
Ms Matanda-Moyo set aside the decision of the arbitrator and ordered Nyapfumbi’s reinstatement to his position of driver without loss of salary or benefits.
Online Reporter