Article 66/2022

What is the difference between a lockout and a shut-out?

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  • The definition of a ‘lockout’, in terms of s213 of the LRA, read together with the definition of ‘issue in dispute’, entails the exclusion by an employer of employees from the employer’s workplace with the purpose of compelling such employees to accept a demand by the employer in respect of a matter of mutual interest between the employer and the employees
  • however, a lockout is to be differentiated from a shut-out referred to by Zondo JP (as he then was) in Technikon SA v National Union of  Technikon Employees of SA (2001) 22 ILJ 427 (LAC), where, at paragraph [16] of the judgment, the court noted that an employer has the right at common law to refuse employees entry onto the workplace where the purpose of their coming onto the workplace is not to perform their duties – such an exclusion is not a lockout as defined in s213, as set out above, and is also not unlawful: it is simply the employer exercising its common law right
September 5, 2024

In assessing if reinstatement is fitting after CCMA deems dismissal in a fixed-term contract unfair, what factors guide this determination?

August 29, 2024

Is a binding agreement between a retrenching employer and the alternative employer required for the above section to be applicable and what role does the retrenching employer have to play in arranging alternative employment for such section to be applicable?

August 22, 2024

An accountant at a municipality faced dismissal for attempting to access the account. Reinstated after appealing to the bargaining council, new charges of dishonesty and IT policy breach led to another dismissal.