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)

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What is an employer to do when it suspects that a medical practitioner is issuing pre- signed sick notes, or permitting its employees to buy sick notes, or, alternatively, is engaging in some other dubious practice regarding the issue of sick notes? What is an employer to do when it suspects that a person is not entitled to practice as a medical doctor?

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Are you required to interpret any of the following: pre-trial minutes, strike ballot guidelines, the LRA, a separation agreement, a benefits dispute, an arbitration award, the BCEA, a restraint of trade, a traditional disciplinary enquiry charge sheet, the constitution of a trade union, etc?

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The labour appeal court recently, in Murray and Roberts Cementation (Pty) Ltd v AMCU obo Dube and Others (2024) 35 SALLR 116 (LAC), confirmed important principles relating to the formulation of traditional charge sheets, determining the
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