Organisational justice perceptions in dismissal disputes
Author: Paul Andries Smit Tshwane University of Technology Contact:
smitpa@tut.ac.za 012 382 5603
lmost 80% of all labour disputes referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in South Africa relates to unfair dismissal disputes. Employers and employees have different perceptions of justice and fairness. Employers believe that justice and fairness can be achieved by establishing and introducing elaborated dismissal procedures, whereas employee seem to place a higher premium on fair treatment, motivation, and being treated with dignity and respect. Employees tend to accept the procedures adopted by employers and will accept the outcome, even if they do not like it, if they have been treated with respect and dignity.
A The concepts of fairness and justice
are elusive concepts, what one person perceives to be fair, another person may well perceive to be unfair. In South Africa’s Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA), the legislator provides legal guidelines that should be followed to enhance the fair treatment of employees, especially with regard to dismissal procedures. The principle is also contained in section 23(1) of the
20 Management Today | January 2012
South African Constitution, Act 108 of 1996 which stipulates that everyone has the right to fair labour practices. Employees’ perceptions of fairness and organisational justice in dismissal disputes will undoubtedly influence their attitudes towards the procedures adopted by the employer.
What is organisational justice? A major challenge for an employer who engages in a disciplinary enquiry is that the terms “fairness” and or justice are not comprehensively defined in legislation. What information and guidelines are available for an organisation to ensure that justice is achieved in dismissal disputes?
Organisational justice can be illustrated schematically as set out in Figure 1, adopted from Greenberg (1990: 399).
Employees talk about and negotiate on issues related to questions such as whether the appropriate outcomes have been reached (distributive justice) and whether management has used correct and fair procedures to arrive at those outcomes (procedural justice).
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