Employment and workplace instruments · 06
Disciplinary code, grievance procedure and whistleblowing policy
The three documents an employer is judged on when a dismissal is tested.
The three documents an employer is judged on when a dismissal is tested.
A code aligned to Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act with graduated sanctions, the procedure, the right to representation and an appeal; a grievance procedure with timelines; and a protected-disclosure channel meeting the Protected Disclosures Act — who receives a disclosure, how the discloser’s identity is protected, and the occupational-detriment protections.
A code that reads as a rigid tariff of sanctions removes the discretion the employer needs, and is then used against the employer at the CCMA — keep it a guide. And a whistleblowing policy that routes disclosures to line management defeats itself: the channel must bypass the people most likely to be the subject of a disclosure, which is a governance design question before it is a drafting one.
The law it sits under
What governs this instrument.
Schedule 8 to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal, sets what a disciplinary code has to support: that a rule existed, that the employee knew of it or could reasonably be expected to have, that it has been applied consistently, and that the sanction is appropriate. A code that punishes conduct no policy prohibits fails the first limb before the hearing starts.
Related pages, tools and documents
Where this instrument sits in the wider set, and the engagement that produces it.
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