Nine miners who were fired for allegedly conducting an illegal picket have been reinstated after a labor court could not definitively determine whether they were celebrating an upcoming wedding or genuinely protesting.
The essence of the labor dispute
The question of whether the incident was an illegal picket or merely a rehearsal for wedding dances and songs became central before the Johannesburg Labour Court. The miners appealed to the court to regain their jobs, claiming they were only rehearsing for a colleague's upcoming wedding. Initially, the dispute was directed to the CCMA, but that organization declined to hear it, deeming it related to a strike, and referred it to the labour court.
Positions of the parties
The union Amco, representing the workers' interests, stated that the dismissal by Fraser Alexander Ltd was unfair. The company, however, insisted that the employees were fired for violating discipline in the form of an illegal picket. The incident occurred while the workers were engaged in work that was subcontracted to their employer.
Testimony and circumstances
Fenye Mupelwa, operations manager at Fraser Alexander, testified in court that there had been a labor conflict prior to the tragic day of August 22, 2019, related to employee dissatisfaction with overtime conditions. That morning, he noticed some workers writing posters with slogans such as 'sifuna ukuqondisa ikampani,' which means 'we want to put the company in order.' He asked the employees to stop such actions and follow established procedures, noting that the company had not received notification of a strike and that no regulations were being followed.
Around lunchtime, the employees began singing. Mupelwa reported that he was in the office when the workers left their warehouses towards the gates. He claimed that the employees were singing a song with the phrase 'down with Fraser Alexander, up with Amcu' and carrying posters with the inscription 'we want our money back.' When asked in court whether he heard wedding songs, he replied that he did not recall hearing such songs, adding that the posters contained nothing related to marriage and lacked slogans like 'down with bachelorhood.'
Groom's version and evidence
Mashifane, the groom and one of the dismissed workers, maintained that the singing and dancing took place outside the gates. He testified that the songs included words such as 'semotshweri tshweri senatla,' which, according to his explanation, means 'a big man is growing up,' and that this is a song performed at weddings. According to Mashifane, the workers held posters inscribed with 'my life’s destiny,' and he noted that he was excited about the upcoming wedding, and the employees were happy for him.
Another worker gave testimony that management was too far from where the singing and dancing was taking place to read the inscriptions on the posters without binoculars. It was established that although there were CCTV recordings showing the events of that day, these recordings disappeared because they were in a stolen company vehicle. Presiding Judge M Mkhatshwa questioned management as to why they did not use mobile phones to record video while near the scene. He noted that while the theft of the surveillance recordings was regrettable, the fact that the company never made backups of this critical evidence was concerning. Since there was no proof that the workers were singing, or what was depicted on the posters, the court ruled to reinstate them with payment of back wages.
