Workers need to observe rules

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda Labour Matters

Many workers get dismissed for failing to observe procedure or rules and some get dismissed for bending or creating their own rules. Where the employer makes rules or procedures and these are given to employees orally or in writing, employees should not be creative by taking short cuts or bending the rules. If there is a need to change the rules, workers should approach the superior with authority to bend or change the rules for permission.

In the matter Innscor Africa Limited versus George Chimini, Justice Malaba highlighted the importance of employees not to bend the rules but to observe them as the employer has business reasons for having the rules.

What happened in this case is that Chimini who was employed by Innscor Africa as a pizza maker, without having received the necessary docket which authorised him to produce pizza, went ahead and produced a pizza.

The employer dismissed him and when the matter went before the Labour Court, the Labour Court disagreed with the employer and ordered that the dismissal be overturned because the employer had not suffered any prejudice and the pizza was only worth $4 and further, the Labour Court said the penalty should have been corrective rather than punitive.

When the matter got to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court was of a different view as it found the Labour Court had misdirected itself in arriving at the conclusion it made. The Supreme Court found that the employer had a good reason for producing the docket system so as to protect the business from dishonest conduct by pizza makers.

It further said that the pizza was only $4 and was of no consequence and ruled that the offence committed betrayed trust and confidence the employer had in the employee thus going to the root of the relationship. Further, the Supreme Court rejected the issue of progressive discipline in such a case.

The lesson from this case is that where there are rules that are expressly intended to protect the business of the employer, employees cannot bend these rules as bending them could easily lead them to dismissal.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on e: [email protected]
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