News

The hilarious labour film “What have the unions ever done for us?” has come true for a bank manager in South Africa who has won his job back with the union’s help.

The Nedbank area manager is all praise for SASBO-The Finance Union who took his unfair dismissal case to the Labour Court and won.

SASBO News reports that on 9 March 2008 Nedbank fired the area manager on operational requirements alleging that he failed to manage his personnel.

And on 7 April this year, the Labour Court ruled in favour of SASBO and the area manager. The court said the dismissal was substantially and procedurally unfair and ordered for his reinstatement without loss of remuneration or benefits as at the date of his dismissal.

The court observed that Nedbank failed to consult the union on the retrenchment and did not afford the employee an opportunity to give his side of the story to the charges of poor managerial skills. The real reason for dismissing him was because he refused to accept a demotion, ruled the court.

The area manager told SASBO News: “What happened to me could happen to anyone. Managers and specialists must not think they are untouchable. There I was shooting the lights out on my performance and the next moment I got the boot – leaving the bank with nothing in my hand except my box full of personal belongings.”



“I realised that I was not able to tackle the Bank on my own and I turned to SASBO for help. For SASBO, I have the highest respect. They believed in my case and together we made it through this obstacle course. I am urging managers and specialists – go on get protection from SASBO now!”



SASBO Assistant General Secretary for Legal Gizelle Conradie described the outcome of the court case as “a long rewarding journey of going to arbitration which ended up in the Labour Court.”



SASBO is an affiliate of the 20 million member strong UNI Global Union which organises professional and managerial staff around the world.