{"id":8355,"date":"2021-04-13T20:30:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T20:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=8355"},"modified":"2021-04-13T17:40:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T17:40:33","slug":"worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test","title":{"rendered":"Worker fired for reporting for duty despite positive Covid-19 test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>THE Labour Court has ordered the dismissal of an employee who refused to self-isolate and continued working despite testing positive for Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Labour Court Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje overturned the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration\u2019s (CCMA) decision to hand Eskort assistant butchery manager Stuurman Mogotsi a final written warning.<\/p>\n

Mogotsi was found guilty in the internal disciplinary process and fired in September last year.<\/p>\n

However, after referring an unfair dismissed case at the CCMA he was handed a final written warning and reinstated.<\/p>\n

Eskort approached the Labour Court to challenges the CCMA ruling.<\/p>\n

The CCMA had found that Eskort\u2019s disciplinary code and procedure called for a final written warning in such cases and failed to justify the sanction of dismissal and ruled that Mogotsi must be reinstated retrospectively, without back-pay and given a final written warning.<\/p>\n

On March 18, Judge Tlhotlhalemaje reviewed and set aside the CCMA award and substituted the ruling with an order that Mogotsi\u2019s dismissal was substantively fair.<\/p>\n

Mogotsi had been found guilty of gross negligence in that after receiving his Covid-19 test results, which were positive, he had failed to self-isolate, continued working for three days and put the lives of his colleagues at risk.<\/p>\n

In the three days he continued working after testing positive for Covid-19 he failed to follow workplace health and safety protocols and to adhere to social distancing and personally came to work to hand in a copy of his results.<\/p>\n

Judge Tlhotlhalemaje described Mogotsi\u2019s actions of not informing his employer about his results, hugging fellow employees, walking around his workplace without a mask as extremely irresponsible in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and therefore grossly negligent.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor reasons which are clearly incomprehensible, Mogotsi had through his care-free conduct, placed everyone he had been in contact with whether at the workplace or at his residence at great risks,\u201d reads Judge Tlhotlhalemaje\u2019s ruling, for which he delivered reasons on March 28.<\/p>\n

In his defence, Mogotsi claimed he did not know that he needed to self-isolate, despite being a member of the in-house Coronavirus site committee.<\/p>\n

After testing positive Mogotsi was found hugging a fellow employee who had undergone a heart operation five years earlier and had recently experienced post-surgery complications.<\/p>\n

\u201dIn the midst of all the monumental harm he had caused, and which was clearly foreseen, Mogotsi could only come up with the now often used defence that he was victimised. At no point did he show any form of contrition for his conduct,\u201d Judge Tlhotlhalemaje found, adding that Mogotsi was not only grossly negligent and reckless, but also dishonest.<\/p>\n

The judge described the facts of the case as \u201cindeed extraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n

POLITICAL BUREAU<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. THE Labour Court has ordered the dismissal of an employee who refused to self-isolate and continued working despite testing positive for Covid-19. Labour Court Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje overturned the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration\u2019s (CCMA) decision to hand Eskort assistant butchery manager Stuurman Mogotsi a final written warning. Mogotsi was found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-8355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nWorker fired for reporting for duty despite positive Covid-19 test - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Labour Court has ordered the dismissal of an employee who refused to self-isolate and continued working despite test ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worker fired for reporting for duty despite positive Covid-19 test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Labour Court has ordered the dismissal of an employee who refused to self-isolate and continued working despite test ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-13T20:30:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-6075d772d3254.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Worker fired for reporting for duty despite positive Covid-19 test\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-13T20:30:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test\"},\"wordCount\":457,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-6075d772d3254.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/worker-fired-for-reporting-for-duty-despite-positive-covid-19-test\",\"name\":\"Worker fired for reporting for duty despite positive Covid-19 test - 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