A truck driver has lost his Labour Court bid to overturn his dismissal. The case followed an unauthorised stop on a Woolworths delivery trip.
The court found that an arbitrator had reasonably found him guilty of misconduct. According to the ruling, the company said the delay caused R1 million in damage to Woolworths.
“The findings made by the arbitrator are however not divorced from the evidence led before him,” the court said.
The driver, A Masondo, held a Code 14 licence. He worked for Imperial Fast & Fresh, a division of DP World (Pty) Ltd.
He was charged with gross insubordination and gross dereliction of duty. The charges came from a trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg and back.
Masondo shared the trip with a co-driver named Gasant. The facts before the arbitrator showed that Gasant was driving at about 11.17pm when he pulled off at Ventersburg.
The truck stayed there until about 5.15am. It arrived back in Cape Town at about 1.10am on 3 April 2020.
The whole trip took 30 hours and 21 minutes. The company said drivers had to finish such trips within 24 hours.
The company also said the truck stopped in an unsafe area without permission. It said this put the drivers and the goods at risk.
The judgment did not give more details on how the R1 million damage was worked out.
At arbitration, Masondo said he had been asleep when the truck stopped. The arbitrator rejected this and found that he knew about the stop.
The arbitrator also heard evidence from Gasant, who later died. He accepted that this evidence was hearsay but allowed it in the interests of justice.
The arbitrator found that Masondo should have asked whether Gasant had permission to stop. He also found that Masondo should have made sure the company was told.
Masondo was not found guilty of gross insubordination. Instead, the arbitrator found him guilty of insubordination for not following a standing instruction.
On the second charge, the arbitrator found that the stop was in an unsafe area. He said a reasonable co-driver would have told Gasant to get permission.
The arbitrator ruled that the working relationship could not reasonably continue. Masondo then asked the Labour Court to review and set aside the award.
He argued that the arbitrator made mistakes of fact and law. He said these mistakes made the award unreasonable.
The court said it was hearing a review, not an appeal. It said an award can only be set aside if no reasonable arbitrator could have reached it.
The court found that the arbitrator had weighed all the evidence. He had also looked at how believable each witness and each version was.
“Whether this Court agrees with those findings or not, is not sufficient for this Court to interfere,” the court said.
The court found a clear link between the evidence and the result. It ruled that the evidence reasonably supported the arbitrator’s decision, and the dismissal stood.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.