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The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law

Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013.

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Other Authors: Van Jaarsveld, Fanie
Format: Thesis
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Van Jaarsveld, Fanie
author_browse Van Jaarsveld, Fanie
author_facet Van Jaarsveld, Fanie
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria
description Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/27214
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:40:07.894Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/27214 The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law Van Jaarsveld, Fanie upetd@up.ac..za Bekker, Sienta Labour law South africa Employer Employee Employment UCTD Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. Does the doctrine of double jeopardy preclude employer intervention or the proverbial 'second bite at the cherry'? The rigid principles of double jeopardy does not form part of our labour law dispensation. The double jeopardy principle, however, is a necessary factor that is taken into account when deciding on the fairness of subjecting an employee to further disciplinary action. Even though the employer has the primary responsibility to discipline an employee, the employer may not deviate from disciplinary procedure and standards set by itself, without justification. The employer's powers must be curtailed to some extent in order to countervail the inequality inherent in the employment relationship. A wide approach in labour disputes should be adopted when deliberating the fairness of deviating in respect of the double jeopardy rule. A disciplinary code, which is a guideline, should not be a stumbling block for fairness to prevail. Deciding against employer intervention, solely based on the absence of a provision in an employer's disciplinary code expressly providing for the right to intervene, is an unwarranted narrow approach that leads to absurd results. The wider approach necessitates consideration of all the relevant facts and circumstances, not only the employer's disciplinary procedure, but including the effect of the employee's conduct on the trust relationship, public interest, the parity principle, reasonableness of the first sanction, appropriateness of the second sanction, reasonableness of the employer's decision to recharge the employee or reconsider the imposed sanction, prejudice to the parties, the time that has lapsed between the first and second disciplinary action and, essentially, the fairness to both the employee and employer. It is evident that an employer may only reconsider a decision of a properly constituted disciplinary tribunal when it is fair to do so. It will be fair to do so in exceptional circumstances. These circumstances will be extremely rare. Even where an employer reserved the right in its disciplinary procedure to 79 intervene with the decision of a disciplinary chairperson, the intervention must nevertheless, be justified. A second bite at the cherry is, therefore, possible. Identifying exceptional circumstances is not an easy task, in view of the test of fairness. Employers should therefore be conscientious in executing the important task to discipline. Mercantile Law unrestricted 2013-09-07T10:57:07Z 2013-08-14 2013-09-07T10:57:07Z 2013-04-18 2013-08-14 2013-08-12 Dissertation Bekker, S 2013, The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law, LLM dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27214 > F13/4/598/gm http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27214 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08122013-121324/ © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Labour law
South africa
Employer
Employee
Employment
UCTD
The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law
title The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law
title_full The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law
title_fullStr The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law
title_full_unstemmed The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law
title_short The doctrine of double jeopardy in the South African labour law
title_sort doctrine of double jeopardy in the south african labour law
topic Labour law
South africa
Employer
Employee
Employment
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27214
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08122013-121324/