By John Grogan
Cape Town: Juta
(2014) 11th edition
Price: R 675 (incl VAT)
518 pages (soft cover)
Juta has recently published the 11th edition of John Grogan’s Workplace Law. This book is an invaluable source of information on employment law in South Africa and contains everything you need to know about how to manage the employment relationship. From the basic terms and conditions of employment, how to terminate employment fairly, how to guard against unfair labour practices and unfair discrimination in the workplace, as well as, how to implement affirmative action measures and ensure compliance with the employment equity laws in South Africa. This book also contains information on collective labour law and industrial action.
In my view, a copy of Workplace Law is a must-have for every labour law practitioner and employee relations practitioner. I find this book just as helpful to me now, as an attorney practising labour law, as I did as a student. It is, however, important to always do a recent case search in conjunction with using this book as our case law changes rapidly. In this regard, there were some judgments from the latter half of 2014, which were not referred to in this book.
What makes this edition of Workplace Law so valuable is that it has been updated to include the recent amendments to the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (EEA), the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997. What I would have liked this book to include is more emphasis on the equal treatment provisions that have recently been included in the EEA and the LRA and hopefully this is something that we can look forward to in the next edition once there has been case law on these issues. I also would have enjoyed a section on the recent amendments pertaining to atypical forms of employment such as the use of labour broker employees and part-time employees. There is, however, a brief section on fixed-term employees and the deeming provisions in respect of fixed-term employees who earn below the prescribed earnings threshold and are engaged for a period of longer than three months, unless certain exceptions apply or there is a justifiable reason for doing so.
For me personally, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on unfair discrimination, which sets out what constitutes unfair discrimination in a clear and succinct manner. This chapter has been updated to include recent case law on age discrimination and a detailed summary of the Solidarity obo Barnard v South African Police Service 2014 (2) SA 1 (SCA) case. However, it does not include the recent Constitutional Court decision in this matter, which was handed down in September 2014. This book contains comprehensive chapters on dismissals for misconduct, poor work performance, incompatibility and incapacity with reference to recent and relevant case law. In this regard, it has been updated to include the latest decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal on dismissal for absence without leave. There is also a very insightful chapter on automatically unfair dismissals.
Monique Jefferson is an attorney at Bowman Gilfillan in Johannesburg.
This article was first published in De Rebus in 2015 (March) DR 43.
