A new Labour Appeal Court ruling involving retailer Woolworths and an employee dismissed for allegedly faking a sick note shows that employers need to tread carefully when making their case – and not lose scope and focus.
Woolworths ultimately lost its battle with the employee because the group focused more on the alleged misconduct of the doctor who issued the seemingly dodgy sick notes than on the employee it was making a case against.compiled an analysis of what happened – including where things went wrong:
Ms Maseko was employed at a Woolworths store in Emalahleni. She was dismissed for allegedly breaching company policy by submitting an irregular medical certificate in circumstances where the company believed that her absence from work was not because she was ill.Evidence led at arbitration She also told them that she had issued a medical certificate to Maseko for three days’ sick leave in June 2018.
When they met with Dr Frempong, he had a number of signed medical certificates on his table and a stamp. His table was untidy, and he was not dressed as a doctor. He was dishevelled and had long fingernails. At the arbitration hearing, Maseko’s evidence was that she had seen Zanele, whom she believed to be a doctor, in 2016. Zanele had given her medication and issued her with a medical certificate allowing her to stay at home to recover.
She denied that she had seen Zanele on 26 June 2018 or that she had only seen Dr Frempong because Zanele would only grant her three days’ sick leave. When she had a patient, she would call him. He would leave about four signed medical certificates with her to issue to sick patients. She would then write the dates that should be reflected on the medical certificate.
It contended that the arbitrator had failed to appreciate the glaring and obviously dishonest version of Maseko and had failed to consider the recorded evidence of Zanele, who had informed the company that Maseko had approached Dr Frempong in June 2018, only after she refused to grant her more than three days’ sick leave.
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