Labour Court orders reinstatement of 21 mine workers after unfair dismissal over unpaid overtime
Image: AI Generated
The Labour Court in Johannesburg has ordered the reinstatement of 21 coal mine workers who were dismissed after refusing to work for part of a night shift when their payslips failed to reflect overtime pay amounting to nearly a third of their salaries.
A strongly worded judgment delivered by acting Judge Bhavna Ramji found that Northern Coal acted unfairly in dismissing the workers following the March 2023 work stoppage at the company’s Mimosa colliery beneficiation plant in Mpumalanga.
The workers, members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), had been employed at the coal washing plant where coal is processed for export through KwaZulu-Natal ports. Some employees had worked at the mine since 2001.
The dispute erupted during a night shift on 23 March 2023 when 21 workers arrived for duty and received payslips that omitted overtime earnings for the February/March payroll cycle. According to the judgment, overtime made up about 25% of their working hours and the omission would have reduced some workers’ take-home pay by more than 30%.
General workers who normally earned about R8,367 with overtime would have received only R5,682, while operators expecting around R16,083 would have received approximately R10,301.
The court heard that the incorrect payslips were caused by a failure by shift supervisor Mandla Ndinisa to authorise overtime hours before payroll processing. The workers themselves were not responsible for the error.
After discovering the discrepancies, the workers gathered in the toolbox area and raised concerns with Ndinisa, who then attempted to contact management and human resources officials to resolve the matter. The workers ultimately did not work from 18h00 until about 22h30, causing production to halt for roughly five-and-a-half hours in total.
The company later charged the employees with participating in an unprotected strike, failing to comply with ultimatums to return to work, and causing production losses. All 21 workers were dismissed in April 2023.
During the trial, the workers argued that they had effectively been instructed to wait while management resolved the pay issue and that they were justified in withholding their labour because the company had breached its obligation to pay them correctly.
Judge Ramji rejected the argument that the workers had been formally instructed not to work, finding instead that they collectively chose to remain in the toolbox area until they received satisfactory assurances regarding their pay.
The judge also held that, under current labour law, workers acting collectively could not rely on common law remedies to justify withholding labour because their conduct fell within the statutory definition of a strike under the Labour Relations Act.
Despite finding that the workers had engaged in an unprotected strike, the court ruled that dismissal was too harsh a sanction in the circumstances.
Judge Ramji emphasised that the workers faced potentially devastating financial consequences if the overtime omission had not been corrected, noting that many were breadwinners living from one pay cheque to the next. The court also pointed out that a similar payroll problem had occurred only months earlier, during December 2022, causing workers significant hardship before the issue was eventually resolved in January 2023.
The judgment criticised management for failing to engage directly with the workers during the stoppage. The court noted that senior managers did not address the employees in person or collectively over the phone, despite the existence of communication channels with union representatives.
Judge Ramji further found that the work stoppage was peaceful, relatively short, and did not involve violence, intimidation or damage to equipment. The workers returned to work once they were satisfied that the issue would be addressed, and there was no evidence of continued misconduct after they resumed duties.
“The company responded by keeping its promise to address their concerns. It is therefore surprising that the company then dismissed all 21 workers and their shift supervisor, effectively escalating a dispute that could have been closed amicably,” the judge stated.
The court also rejected Northern Coal’s R2.2 million counterclaim against AMCU and the workers for losses allegedly suffered during the stoppage. Judge Ramji found that the strike had been spontaneous, that there was no evidence AMCU officials had organised or encouraged the stoppage, and that holding poorly paid workers liable for such losses would not be just and equitable.
The judge expressed concern that the company had attempted to pursue damages only against AMCU while excluding the National Union of Mineworkers, even though NUM members had also participated in the stoppage.
In the final order, the Labour Court declared the dismissals substantively unfair and directed Northern Coal to reinstate all the affected workers to the same or equivalent positions they held before their dismissal in April 2023.
The reinstatement was made retrospective to the date of dismissal, entitling the workers to backpay covering the entire period since they lost their jobs.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
IOL News