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Article 5/2023

Throughout an employee’s career, spanning approximately 40 years, he worked around noisy, heavy machinery. Following a hearing assessment when he was 59, he was declared to be permanently unfit for his normal duties due to noise-induced hearing loss. He was, therefore, forced to retire permanently before the age of 65.

What is the content of the presumption entailing that such noise-induced hearing loss took place in the course of the employee’s employment?

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In Knoetze v Rand Mutual Assurance (2022) 33 SALLR 4 (DGJ), it is submitted that the high court
followed the following correct approach:

  • s65(1) of COIDA contemplates two kinds of diseases:
    • a disease mentioned in the first column of Schedule 3 (a listed occupational disease) and
    • a disease other than a disease contemplated as a listed disease (a so-called non-listed
      disease)
  • hearing impairment (being a listed occupational disease), in terms of s66 of COIDA, is presumed
    to have arisen out of and in the course of employment unless the contrary is proven (which, in
    casu, could not be proven by Rand Mutual Assurance, licensed for assessing and making
    payment of claims for compensation)

October 19, 2026

Section 41(2) of the BCEA regulates the entitlement of an employee, dismissed for reasons based on the employer’s operational requirements, to severance pay.

In terms of s41(4) of the BCEA, an employee, who unreasonably refused to accept the employer’s offer of alternative employment with that employer or any other employer, is not entitled to severance pay ito s41(2).

How does the assistance provided by the retrenching employer to a retrenched employee affect such employee’s entitlement to severance pay?

October 12, 2026

What is the short test to be applied to determine whether there is compliance with the reasonable decision-maker test?

When determining whether or not the arbitrator of the CCMA or bargaining council behaved like a reasonable decision-maker, what are the ‘questions to be asked’?

What is the test recently applied to determine whether an arbitration award should be set aside on review?

October 5, 2026

In the scenario where a group of employees, participating in a demonstration, picket, strike, etc, are participating in unlawful conduct, but a number of other employees, who are also participating in such demonstration, picket, strike, etc, are not participating in such unlawful conduct, will the employer be entitled to obtain an interdict against both groups of such employees?