Disciplinary Hearings
Experienced, qualified and professional disciplinary hearings chairperson and training at affordable rates in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Bridge Labour Solutions consultants are experts who have more than just good qualifications – they have literally been through hundreds of disciplinary hearings equipping them with experience that cannot be learned any other way. These practitioners are up to date with the case law and are impartial in their decision making, ensuring that as a client, you are protected.
For small enterprises who cannot justify the employment of a full-time Human Resources Officer – Bridge Labour Solutions provides a resource which is a phone call away.
Some Facts:
Referrals of dismissals (and final warnings) to the CCMA have become commonplace with 188 449 matters referred during the 2016/2017 financial year alone. This excludes referrals to Bargaining Councils which serve the same purpose. Over 60% of these matters are settled at the conciliation stage but often at a cost to the Employer who elects to settle the matter with a cash offer due to the nuisance value attached.
Should the matter proceed to arbitration and the Employer loses the matter, the Employee will be reinstated with back pay or the Employer will have to compensate the Employee (anything up to 24 months remuneration if the matter is considered to be “automatically unfair”). This risk makes handling your internal disciplinary matters correctly the first time around. However, this is not easily done given the complexity of the field. It is a specialist field requiring the involvement of labour law specialists.
Many businesses have also realised the opportunity cost of handling disciplinary issues themselves. Many companies have downscaled staff numbers and managers can ill-afford the time to sit in disciplinary hearings. A simple consideration of what the manager’s time costs to chair a disciplinary matter makes outsourcing this function not only economically viable but also good business practice given the specialist knowledge required and the need for impartiality.
Need an experienced chairperson at your disciplinary hearing?
Need Formal Disciplinary Action Training?
Service Offerings
Disciplinary Hearings
- Bridge Labour Solutions provides independent, experienced and well-trained labour law practitioners to chair disciplinary hearings.
- Clients are charged per hour only.
- The proceedings are recorded.
- Disciplinary chairpersons hear the evidence and make a decision, based on principles of law and fairness, if the Employee is guilty or not and if so, what the appropriate sanction should be.
- The Employer mandates the chairperson to make a recommendation or final decision on the sanction.
- The chairperson will present the client with a typed record of the proceedings, which includes the finding and any sanction. This does not include a transcript of all the evidence but a summary of the pertinent evidence in the finding.
- Should the matter proceed to the CCMA or Bargaining Council, a Bridge Labour Solutions consultant can assist the Employer in the preparation of the matter including the strategy, bundle compilation and witness preparation.
- Bridge Labour Solutions consultants can also chair any unrelated disciplinary appeal proceedings.
Training and Facilitation
- Facilitators experienced in labour law conduct training on Discipline in the Workplace at either a basic level (1 day) or intermediate level (2 days).
- Delegates will be grounded with basic labour law principles and will acquire an understanding of practical matters relating to maintaining discipline in the workplace.
- The Intermediate Course contains role plays and equips delegates to chair disciplinary hearings.
- These courses are ideally suited for supervisory and managerial employees as well as shop steward committees.
- Facilitators take an interactive approach with delegates and using their practical experience in this field are able to provide insight into common challenges faced by employee leaders.
- A certificate of participation is issued to each delegate.
- Bridge Labour Solutions also provides expert facilitation pertaining to the specific requirements of the client. This is normally a less structured but more interactive session with smaller groups addressing a particular corporate need.
Consulting
- Drafting permanent and fixed-term employment contracts
- New disciplinary codes or assessment of current code
- New grievance procedure or assessment of existing
- Employee computer policy
- Telephonic or face to face advice on day to day industrial relations matters is offered by experienced labour law consultants. Retainers are ideal for this form of interaction with Bridge Labour Solutions.
About us
The Managing Director of Bridge Labour Solutions is Wayne Bolton – he also personally serves as a consultant throughout the Eastern Cape together with Tony Howden and George Scott.
Wayne is known for his thoroughness and fairness in conducting disciplinary hearings. He has many years of experience in unionised, large corporate and small business environments with experience across many industries including banking, mining, retail, hospitality and manufacturing.
In his own business for nearly 8 years, Wayne was previously a regional industrial relations manager for a large national corporation and also occupied a senior line management position. He understands business and the need for good industrial relations practices. Wayne studied at the University of Natal where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and English) followed by a Post-Graduate Diploma in Industrial Relations. In 2014 he completed with distinction the accredited CCMA Commissioners training course, the post-graduate Certificate in Labour Law Practice (Nelson Mandela University). Wayne brings his extensive experience in public speaking to the training room and combined with his approachable character, consistently receives excellent reviews for his facilitation ability.
Bridge Labour Solutions offers a specialist service throughout South Africa through a network of associate consultants and offers the fee payment structures of payment per hour (ad hoc) or the convenient annual retainer. Further information is available on request.
