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Article: Consult with unions or staff before you retrench; The employer may have urgent reasons for letting staff go.(Workplace)
- Article from:
- The Star (South Africa)
- Article date:
- September 8, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When an employer considers retrenching employees, full consultations must first take place about this intention before making any decision to retrench, according to the Labour Relations Act.
When employees belong to a trade union, the employer is required to consult with that union on several issues, the most important of which is ways of avoiding job losses.
Should the employer choose not to engage in proper pre-retrenchment consultations, and the employees are forcibly retrenched, this would normally result in a finding of unfair dismissal.
But where the employer has made every effort to consult, it can't be blamed for failure to do so.
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