1. Preliminary issues.
What does preliminary issues mean?
Preliminary issues deals with the technical points of your case. Preliminary issues ensure that the parties are correctly cited; like the employer and employee you serve the copy. Preliminary issues is the first thing that a commissioner at the CCMA is going to address before going into the facts of your case.
If you don’t get the preliminary issues sorted out you’re more than likely to lose the case on a technical point. So it’s very important that you check that you’ve complied all required by citing the right parties, you’ve served your copy and that you filed your case within 30 days from the date of dismissal.
If you do it after 30 days then you have to do something called a Condonation – which will basically explain why you couldn’t comply within the 30-day period.
2. Substantive fairness.
What does substantive fairness mean?
Substantive fairness deals with the reasons for the dismissal. Which could be misconduct, retrenchment, incapacity, illness; there are numerous different reasons. Substantive fairness deals with the evidence in your case.
3. Procedural fairness.
Procedural fairness is did the employer follow the right procedure when they dismissed you?
5 requirements under Procedural Fairness.
- During the disciplinary hearing at the workplace, did they do it in a language that you understand?
- Did you have enough time to prepare for your case? Were you given a notice to attend a disciplinary hearing that same day. That’s not enough time for you to gather the evidence you need or to see what witnesses you have. Time required to prepare for the disciplinary hearing is 48 hours. The employer must generally give you 48 hours of notice before your disciplinary hearing.
- At a disciplinary hearing, did the employer give you an opportunity to be represented either by trade union representative or by a fellow colleague?
- Did the employer give you an opportunity to defend yourself and give your statement of the facts?
- Did the employer communicate the ruling from the disciplinary hearing to you in writing?
If you’re successful in your CCMA case what outcomes are you more likely to receive?
There’s only three outcomes you can receive:
Reinstatement – you can get your job back exactly as it was before you were dismissed.
Re-employment – where you go back to the company but you maybe report to somebody else or you work in a different department a
Compensation – An employee is awarded money.
