Advice on a unfair dismissal case

R

RaFi

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I would like to have some advice about a case where I believe a company unfairly dismissed a friend. Where I work things are done differently, so I am not sure how these things work.

The background story is, the friend was working for a retail chain group. During a security search an item was apparently found among his belongings that was not declared. It was this friend's second offense regarding this, a hearing was called and the friend's contract was terminated.

But,

A few months ago the friend handed a written grievance to the company in which he stated that the manager treated him unfairly, it concerned the lack of training by the manager as well as the fact that the manager was treating him with disrespect, laughing at him when he approached the manger with problems, stuff like that. The same manager was the person who made the ruling on the contact termination.

During the hearing two security guards were called to testify, but neither one of them conducted the searching of the friend's belongings, both of them testified that they only saw the item on the table and not in the possession of the friend. The security guard who had supposedly found the item was not called by the company as a witness. Which begs the question, why the company did not call the primary eye witness to testify, why would they call in two other witnesses who was not personally involved in the case.

That is why I feel the case is unfair :
1) The person who made the ruling was previously accused of treating the friend unfairly, which means that this manager cannot be trusted to conduct such a hearing impartially.
2) There is no evidence presented that the item was in fact among my friend's belongings, the witnesses both testified that they only saw the item on the table after the search was conducted.

Since no evidence was presented during the hearing that could actually prove that the item was found among the friend's belongings, I feel the case should have been dismissed, the company cannot prove their case. But this did not happen.

So now I would like the to know the following:

Firstly, am I wrong with my reasons why I feel the hearing was not fair?

Secondly, what can my friend do about it? He contacted a legal group who stated that they deal with cases like this, with a no win no fee policy, but if they win their fee is extremely high, basically the friend will owe the legal group 3 month's salary. What is the point of winning the case but loosing 3 months salary in legal fees? Other lawyers ask a lot of money to only look at the case to determine whether it is worth it or not.
He was advised to contact CCMA directly, now I don't know what CCMA is, I looked at their webpage but cannot get clarity on what it is they do, as well as the costs involved.

Perhaps someone here has a bit of knowledge on matters such as this and can give some advice.
Thanks
 
I don't know much about the laws, but I do know that if it was unfair the CCMA will sort him out. As far as I know it's free as well. They do mediation and arbitration, they are a state entity with the necessary powers and mandates to do exactly this. They are also quite on the ball, and do not take these things lightly.
 
CCMA, complete a 7/11 document stating reasons for unfair dismissal, have the employer served with a notice, then conciliation if no resolution, arbitration. The entire case is heard again in front of a commissioner. There are two grounds for unfair dismissal, namely, procedural unfair and/or substantive unfair. Your friend can represent himself. I'm more intrigued as to what this item was, and why he didn't declare it, what are the policies regarding this, and what the company has done with previous similar instances.

The facts you stated mainly allude to procedure issues, which, in most cases may attract a month or two salary. The substantive merits I can't comment on, no infomation here.
 
Furthermore, he has 30 days, from dismissal date, to apply at the CCMA. If that threshold has expired, he can still apply, but condonation must be requested, stating reasons for his delay in making the 7/11 application.
 
I will have him contact CCMA.

I presented the facts as it was stated at the hearing.

The item was a packets of cigarettes. During the search 4 packets were found, 3 were declared, one was not. The first warning my friend received was also concerning an undeclared packet. He buys his cigarettes in a carton, and since the first warning always had security open the carton and declared all the packets.

Two of the three packets were still unopened, the third was half full, I suppose that was the one he was using at the time. The fourth,the one that was not declared, had only three cigarettes in. It doesn't make sense why he would leave three cigarettes in a packet and open a new one, especially since he keep them all together.

I get the feeling of a setup, a mysterious fourth packet, the fact that the manager did not call in the person who allegedly found the packet to testify.

But even if the packet was his, and I am not convinced it was, the facts that was presented during the hearing did not conclusively provide proof that the packet was found in his possession. The two security guards who testified, only testified that they saw the packet on a table. That was the only facts that the manager provided for the hearing.
 
It's preferable if he has someone with him (colleague/union) who is familiar with the CCMA. Albeit that the intention of the CCMA was to simplify matters, it has become, in recent years, more legalistic.
 
Agreed, CCMA has become a mini version of Law and Order.


Have your legal jargon in order or you wont have a hope in hell.
 
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