Correctional Services loses labour case

01/06/05 Prison Warder Mpolokeng Mokone playing with children AT the Celebration of International Children\'s Day, Suncity Correctional Services. pic Thobeka Zazi Ndabula

01/06/05 Prison Warder Mpolokeng Mokone playing with children AT the Celebration of International Children\'s Day, Suncity Correctional Services. pic Thobeka Zazi Ndabula

Published Jul 15, 2016

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Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity has won its constitutional court appeal against the Department of Correctional Services’ employment equity plan.

The court found the department had unfairly discriminated against the coloured employees who were denied employment on the basis of the plan.

The union argued, in its application, that the employer only considered national race demographics when effecting the policy instead of weighing in provincial ratios.

Three of the applicants in Solidarity’s case were, however, denied appeal by the court on Friday morning for different reasons.

The majority judgement, delivered by Acting Deputy Chief Justice Bess Nkabinde, also found that, while the department used the wrong benchmarks, Solidarity was incorrect in its assertion that the department had used quotas instead of targets.

Read also : Judgment on employment equity hailed

“The department used the wrong benchmark, one that was not authorised by the relevant legislations,” Nkabinde said.

The court has ordered that the successful applicants’ remuneration and benefits be backdated from the day they would have been appointed, had they not been denied appointment.

LABOUR BUREAU

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