After a three-year legal battle, Goodyear SA was ordered to reinstate 54 workers it dismissed at the Kariega plant for not complying with the company’s staggered lunch-break protocols.
Goodyear’s review application was dismissed with no costs at the Labour Court in Gqeberha on Thursday.
The workers were dismissed in May 2021 following disciplinary action for allegedly not complying with the company’s staggered lunch-break protocols.
According to the judgment, the CCMA issued an award on June 28 2022, which found that though the conduct of the employees constituted insubordination, it did not warrant a sanction of dismissal.
The CCMA commissioner declared the dismissal of the employees to be substantively unfair and ordered the company to retrospectively reinstate all 54.
Not happy with this ruling, Goodyear took the matter to the Labour Court which upheld the CCMA’s ruling.
The issue with the workers stems from a collective agreement that Numsa entered into with Goodyear which was meant to take effect on April 6 2020.
The agreement stated that meal and tea breaks would be staggered, which meant that workers operating machines in the Banbury department would not all take their lunch break at the same time, but rather take turns.
This would ensure that the production plant never stopped and machines were running around the clock.
However, three months after the collective agreement commenced, Numsa gave Goodyear a 30 days’ notice of termination of the collective agreement operating the machines non-stop as it became a problem for the workers, with one having raised an issue about operating two machines at the same time.
Machines were then switched off during lunch breaks which was not in line with the collective agreement.
Goodyear told the Labour Court that the CMMA commissioner had committed misconduct and gross irregularities in the conduct of the proceedings, saying he had committed material errors of fact and law and arrived at a decision that no reasonable decisionmaker could have arrived at with the evidence before him.
“First, the company complains that there was no fair trial or arbitration of the dispute because the commissioner expanded the issues in the dispute beyond the ambit of the pre-arbitration,” the court judgment states.
In his ruling, judge Molatelo Makhura found no merit to the company’s arguments and the commissioner found that the misconduct by the 54 dismissed employees emanated from a collective dispute relating to the continuous operation of the machines.
“It is common cause that the employees were unhappy with the continuous operation of machines during breaks.
“Numsa issued a letter cancelling the collective agreement and later referred the dispute to the CCMA seeking confirmation of the cancellation of the agreement.
“The company was aware of the employees’ unhappiness with the arrangement,” Makhura wrote.
One of the workers, fired in 2021, said he was unemployed for eight months after being dismissed by the tyre manufacturer.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said unfortunately most of his other colleagues were not as lucky as he was in finding another job.
“The majority of the guys who were fired alongside me were older guys, men in their 50s, and the majority of them unable to source employment elsewhere in the time they were let go.
“Some lost their assets, they were left broken because of the financial strain that came with being unable to provide for their families.
“It not only impacted them but also some had children in university and they now found themselves unable to pay for registration so the impact was widespread.
“Personally, I faced my own challenges such as I wasn’t able to keep up on my bond and car payments but luckily, I had a good relationship with my bank and they were lenient.
“The majority of the guys would jump at the opportunity to go back to work but age could be an issue as some are over 65.
“Even though I said I was able to secure a job, it was just that, a job.
“I worked as an artisan and had to take a drastic salary cut working in a field that wasn’t even my profession,” the former employee said.
Reacting to the judgment, Numsa Eastern Cape secretary Mziyanda Twani said they were happy and had been waiting on the outcome after having previously won the case at the CCMA.
“We’re very excited and hope that they [Goodyear] won’t petition the next higher court for this matter to be heard again by another court,” Twani said.
“Our workers and members have been languishing in poverty for the past 3½ years or so.
“We’re happy that the company is going to welcome them back so they can resume their lives and go back to normality.”
Twani said there were financial components as part of the award which would have to be upheld.
“There will be financial implications for Goodyear definitely and this is not the only case we have with them.
“We’ve got three shop stewards fired before these 54 employees that we won at the CCMA in connection with this case. Goodyear continues to defend and lose this case.”
Goodyear spokesperson Thimna Masizana said the tyre manufacturer was reviewing the ruling and considering its options, including the possibility of an appeal.
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