Establish A Basic Understanding Of The Farm’s Human Resources Policy

In order to understand the concept of the word policy, it is necessary to investigate the process that leads to the formation of policies.

• The Government creates legislation, which forms the framework for an act.
• An act is a set of guidelines, which companies or farms should use to set up their internal policies.
• A policy is a company’s (farm “s) interpretation of how they will implement that law within the workplace.
• The procedure is the methodology behind the implementation of that policy

Disciplinary Rules

In the past, these rules were often applied by management or a supervisor that had no legal basis but were implemented almost randomly according to their own interpretation of the situation.

There was often no written disciplinary policy to guide management or the workers.

Discipline was used as a big stick and the person who had committed the alleged misdemeanour had no way of defending their case.

Many farmworkers understand disciplinary rules as a punishment system that normally has a negative outcome for the worker, whereby threats of punishment are used and written warnings are issued.

According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1983 – the discipline and grievance procedure should cover the following:

• Discipline is there to change behaviour in a constructive manner with the appropriate support by management.
• Rehabilitation should be the keystone for good discipline.
• Deterrence is to be used if rehabilitation has failed its purpose.

Non-Compliance To Farm Rules And Procedures

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1983 stipulates that nobody can be dismissed or punished unless they have had a disciplinary hearing.

There are certain offences for which you can be dismissed on the first offence and other offences for which a set procedure must be followed.

Incapacity

Poor Work Performance: Before an employer can dismiss an employee for poor work performance, the employer must first give the employee appropriate evaluation, training or guidance and a reasonable time for improvement. The employer must hold an investigation into the reasons for the poor performance. Only if the employee still continues to perform poorly thereafter and the problem cannot reasonably be solved without dismissing the employee, will dismissal be fair.

Bad Health or Injury: If temporary incapacity will cause an employee to be away from work for an unreasonably long time, it will be unfair to dismiss the employee unless the employer first investigates all possible ways of avoiding this step. If the incapacity is permanent, the employer should try to find alternative work for the employee or adapt the work so that the employee is able to do it. The employer must make a greater effort to accommodate the employee if the employee was injured while at work.

Any termination of employment of the employee must be in accordance with a fair procedure and should be substantively fair.

There are three kinds of fair reasons for dismissal. These are:

• For misconduct (if an employee intentionally or carelessly breaks a rule at the workplace, for example, steals company goods)
• For incapacity (if an employee cannot perform duties properly due to illness, ill health or inability)
• For operational reasons (if a company has dismissed employees for reasons which are related to purely business needs and not because of some failing on the part of the employee).

Misconduct

The workplace is entitled to set reasonable standards, workplace rules and/or codes of conduct to which the employees must comply.

Misconduct is deemed to be all behaviour of an employee that is regarded as unacceptable by an employer. There are certain behaviours that are commonly known to be unacceptable, not just for an employer, but for society as a whole, for example, theft and fraud.

An employee is guilty of misconduct or transgression when he/she willfully or negligently and knowingly contravenes a workplace rule or standard.

The implication of not complying with company rules and regulations varies. The severity of acts of non-compliance will be stipulated in the policy document. Certain offences are deemed more severe than others. Repeated non-compliance may lead to harsher measures being taken and may result in dismissal.

At all times, the worker must be allowed to have representation and management must have a grievance procedure in place so that the workers have an avenue to voice any grievance.

Unions represent workers on some farms and they will represent or negotiate with management on behalf of the workers.

If the workers feel that they have a legitimate grievance that management is not listening to, then they can take up the matter with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). CCMA offices are available in all nine provinces of South Africa.