Unfair dismissal?

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 27 March 2007

This is the question one needs to answer after a Vodacom worker was dismissed about two weeks ago ‘…after attending a union activity while on a doctor-mandated sick leave’ (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007).
 
What was the dismissed worker’s response?
 
The dismissed worker, Portia Sithole, accused Vodacom of spying on workers because Vodacom ‘…monitored her location using her mobile telephone’ (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007).
 
Sithole said that Vodacom “…offers employees a phone as a company benefit. Now they are using it as a tracking device to see where one goes and when. I think it is a total invasion of privacy” (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007).
 
In other words, it’s nice to have a free company phone but please don’t use it to check up on me.
 
Were there any supportive responses from fellow union members?
 
Of course.

‘…Sithole's dismissal had prompted other workers - who thought it was unjustified - to question whether Vodacom was illegally targeting union activists’ (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007). This is according to Mfanafuthi Sithebe, spokesperson of the Communication Workers Unions of South Africa (CWU). Also, “I don't believe they do this to all employees on sick leave.”
 
In other words, Sithebe accused Vodacom of ‘illegally targeting union activists’ (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007).
 
“There was no case against Portia. I don't understand why we are wasting company resources on these punitive measures” (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007). This is according to CWU office bearer at Vodacom, Aubrey Tshabalala.
 
In other words, Portia did nothing wrong ‘…by attending a union activity while on a doctor-mandated sick leave,’ you’re just wasting company resources (Vodacom ‘spying’ on workers, Sapa, 22 March 2007).
 
Do they have proof that Vodacom is targeting only union activists?
 
No. They don’t have any proof to back up their contention.
 
Is Vodacom really in the wrong here? Was Sithole unfairly dismissed?
 
We take Vodacom’s side on this one and would like to response on the contentions of Sithole and other CWU members:

• ‘…total invasion of privacy’ (Sithole) – This is a bit harsh considering that Vodacom only monitored her location in order to see if she’s really sick, which was clearly not the case.

• ‘…illegally targeting union activists’ (Sithebe) – Where’s the proof?

• ‘…no case against Portia’ (Tshabalala) – Not at work, pretending to be sick… no case, you must be kidding. ADSL South Africa is sure Sithole is not the only South African that can fake it. Many South Africans do but they know that chances are good that they will be fired when the boss hears about it… especially when they use that time to work against the company ‘by attending a union activity’. Why? Because you’re a lying maggot, the company has to foot the bill and you also show that you don’t care about your fellow employees, who has to work extra hard to fill the gap you left… it’s nice to have a day or two or even more off, but do you really want to do that at the expense of the company and your fellow employees?
   
  How sick can you be if you are healthy enough to attend a union activity but not healthy enough to pitch up for work? Sithole, if your job at Vodacom involved moving rocks, we might have given you the benefit of the doubt, but since it’s certainly not the case you’re clearly in the wrong here as well as Tshabalala.

• ‘…wasting company resources…’  (Tshabalala) – What a joke. We hope Vodacom can get rid of you soon because you’re clearly not capable of logic reasoning.

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) is not against any organization or group whose sole purpose is to help workers, but when the likes of Tshabalala is doing the rounds, it can’t be beneficial to the workers or the company involved.