The labour court upheld the dismissal of an employee who failed to notify his line manager of his sick leave.
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An employee has a duty to report ill health to a line manager prior to taking sick leave and a medical certificate is no excuse for not doing so, the labour court found in upholding the dismissal of a worker.
Zingisa Mqulwana turned to the Cape Town Labour Court after he was fired by his employer, Webhelp SA Outsourcing Ltd for not reporting the fact that he was taking sick leave. His dismissal on a charge of misconduct was upheld by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). Mqulwana then sought to overturn the CCMA ruling in the labour court.
Mqulwana was dismissed for failing to inform his line manager about his absence on April 21, 2021. Two days prior he had suffered a nosebleed at work and was referred to a nurse at the company. He subsequently consulted a doctor.
The following day he came to work and told the operations manager that he had been booked off by a doctor. He did not tell the operations manager how many days he was being booked off. Mqulwana also did not give the manager a copy of the medical certificate at that stage. He also did not contact his line manager to tell him he would not be at work the next day.
When he was not at work on April 21, his line manager attempted to contact him by messaging him and phoning him without success. Mqulwana explained that his phone had been stolen and he never received those messages.
It was pointed out that even though he had no phone, Mqulwana lived with family members who did have cell phones, and he could have used one of their phones to alert his line manager of the fact that he was home and sick.
He testified that he did not feel it was necessary to ask his family to help him contact work because he had already notified the operations manager and he was still off sick. He also claims he did not have the number of his line manager.
The arbitrator found that the applicant should have provided a copy of his medical certificate to management on April 20 so that they would know how long he was booked off for. He also failed to contact anyone to notify them he would be absent, apart from not contacting his line manager.
Accordingly, he was guilty of breaching the rule requiring him to contact his manager when he was absent from work. The arbitrator found that his dismissal was substantively fair considering that he had been issued with three previous warnings for failing to communicate with his line manager when he was absent from work. The fact that he was ill did not relieve him of that obligation, the arbitrator found.
On review to the labour court, Mqulwana held that his dismissal was unfair, given the fact that he was really sick and he had a medical certificate to prove this. His employer, however, pointed out that the purpose of the rule about contacting his line manager when he is absent is to let the manager know he is going to be absent on the day in question and that getting a medical certificate on a later date does not solve the problem of knowing whether he is coming to work or not.
The labour court ruled in favour of the company and found that Mqulwana was obliged to notify his line manager about his sick leave.
Cape Times