Dealing with employee misconduct by presiding officers: towards a fair sanction at Umgeni Water.

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence would suggest a perception amongst employees that line managers/leadership often fail to deal with cases of workplace misconduct effectively, which has led to mishandling of cases, commonly referred to forums such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), where decisions are frequently reversed. No evidence was found that a study has been conducted before within the Umgeni Water (UW) organization on this subject, thus, in seeking evidence to address the main study purpose it was aimed to assess the processes and procedures used in concluding a fair sanction on employee misconduct at UW, establish who is entitled to preside over employee misconduct, and whether legal representations are allowed for either employer or employee at an internal disciplinary enquiry at UW. To achieve this, a qualitative study was conducted gathering data from a purposively determined sample size of 20, that was selected from a target population of 60. Data was gathered using semi-structured interview guide. The main findings revealed that the disciplinary procedure at Umgeni Water is characterised by bias, unfairness, and prejudice; as a result, decisions taken in most referred matters/cases are overturned by the CCMA or Labour Court. Furthermore, most presiding officers (POs) are found to be chosen randomly from a pool of managers to preside over a given disciplinary hearing and are unqualified to chair these hearings, as they lack training and expertise on basic labour law, resulting in inappropriate judgements. While legal representation is a constitutionally entrenched right for fairness and justice, employees were discovered to not be allowed this right during the disciplinary hearing, other than representation by Union workers, who are not well versed with labour law. In contrast, Umgeni Water may be allowed to outsource attorneys to chair such hearings, resulting in a huge imbalance. Many shortcomings regarding the management of employee misconduct were apparent from the research findings, thus, the study proposes Umgeni Water should train its POs on basic labour law, should comply with the dictates of relevant Acts and its Code of Conduct, and consider reviewing its policies and procedures regarding the issue of legal representation during internal disciplinary hearings. The organization should also seriously address gender imbalance and select POs based on merit. as well as considering a comprehensive reception of the Code of Conduct; as an innovative approach towards refining and enhancing compliance with ethical standards.