IOL News reports that the courts should not be expected to clean up the mistakes made by government departments when it comes to their internal affairs, the Labour Court said in coming to the rescue of the Department of Correctional Services. The Labour Court, Johannesburg, had set aside an agreement the department had reached with three of its officials. It entailed paying them more than R1 million in backpay after they were fired.
The problem, however, was that a functionary of the department entered into the agreement without first consulting the finance department regarding the agreement. The Labour Court overturned the agreement because the money offered to the three officials formed part of the public purse, and prior permission must be obtained from the finance department before it could be dished out.
In the opening to its judgment, the court commented that the matter is once again an example of the challenges faced when it comes to the State conducting employment relations. “This court must become involved in managing the internal affairs of the State as an employer, because of irregularities perpetrated in the conducting of such employment relations. It is an undesirable state of affairs,” it said. The court commented further that it does so at the request of the State itself, by way of what is commonly known as a self-review. “These interventions should be a rarity. But unfortunately, they are not,” it said.
These comments followed an urgent application by Correctional Services to overturn its own decision, as it now regretted it. The legal issue arose after three officials were dismissed for dishonesty. It was claimed that they falsified parole supervision records. In 2022, the Departmental Investigation Unit (DIU) investigated allegations of fraudulent activity at the Krugersdorp Community Corrections Office related to the offender monitoring system.
According to the department, the employees falsified records of parolee supervision visits, particularly by logging and recording visits that never took place. Following a full departmental investigation, the three faced disciplinary proceedings, and they were eventually fired.
They referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council (GPSSBC), which proceeded to arbitration. Before the arbitration hearing, a departmental functionary, only referred to as Mtshweni, obtained a mandate to settle the dispute.
In terms of the settlement, the three were to be reinstated, but with full retrospective pay, which exceeded R1 million. This settlement was confirmed by the arbitrator. But Correctional Services discovered irregularities with the settlement after obtaining a legal opinion. The main issue was that this was done without first obtaining permission to touch the public purse.
According to the department, the initial settlement was concluded on the wrong advice. In ruling in favour of the department, the court said irregular expenditure must be prevented. It commented that it is likely that the department will have difficulty in recovering the money once it has been paid to them. It pointed out that the employees are not left without remedy or further recourse, as they can take the matter back to arbitration to seek reinstatement and backpay.
by Zelda Venter