What are the Three Froms of Employee Dismissal Exit?

According to the new Labour Relations Act, there are the following three reasons for which an employer may dismiss (fire) and employee:

1. Incapacity –This means where an employee has for some reason, become incapacitated or debilitated.
2. Operational reasons dismissal – this reason commonly referred to as “retrenchment” and take place where an employer genuinely needs to make functional changes to its work force in order to be in existence and be commercial.
3. Misconduct – Suppose, where an employee is grossly disrespectful or insubordinate, such as slapping an employer or where an employee commits theft; and 

Though, in order for a dismissal to be fair, not only must there be a reason which falls within the above three reasons for the dismissal, but the employer must also carry out a fair procedure in dismissing or firing the employee. The Labour Relations Act sets out guidelines as to what constituted a fair procedure prior to dismissal and examples of these would be:

1. Operational reasons – Again, an employer wanting to restructure, must conduct a meaningful consultation process with the employee to explore the possibility of alternative placement within the company, possibly at a reduced salary and during this procedure, also display transparency regarding the company’s operational needs, so that the employee can be satisfied that there is indeed a valid need to restructure and an employer who ignores this does so at their peril as even where a completely valid reason exists, a summary dismissal without a prior fair consultation process will render the dismissal unfair and unlawful and the employee will be entitled to appropriate compensation. 
2. Misconduct – An employer catches an employee committing theft red-handed on CCTV cameras, and fires them on the spot without suspending them first and charging them and summoning them to a disciplinary enquiry, will still be considered an unfair dismissal, even though there is a valid reason, as a fair procedure was not implemented prior to dismissal. 
3. Incapacity – A fair prior procedure would include a genuine consultation process with the employee in order to explore the possibilities of accommodating the employee in their compromised state, consultation process to explore the possibility of alternative placement within the company, etc. Again, for example, an employee has a stroke, which completely prevents the employee from functioning. 

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