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Pregnant employees protected against dismissal

Date posted: 11.09.2014 | Author: Harry Bovensmann

Pregnant Employees are protected against unfair discrimination by the constitution and labour laws. But, can an employer and employee enter into an agreement that employment will be terminated if the employee falls pregnant? Under the Labour Relations Act the dismissal of an employee due to her pregnancy, or for a reason related to her pregnancy, is based on unfair discrimination and renders the dismissal automatically unfair. One might think that the parties could from the outset enter into an agreement that employment would terminate if the employee falls pregnant. Due to the imbalance of power in the employment relationship and the vulnerability of an employee in these circumstances, it is not such a simple matter.

English: pregnancy at 8th month

Pregnant employees protected (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the labour court case of Wallace vs Du Toit, the employer had employed an au pair to take care of his two young children. After two years, the au pair fell pregnant and her employment was terminated. The employer stated that it had been verbally agreed during the pre-employment interview that if the au pair had children of her own, her employment would lapse by virtue of a “resolutive condition”.

When the au pair said that she was pregnant the employer congratulated her, but told her that her services would have to be terminated. In the employee’s evidence she stated that the employer found it objectionable that the pregnancy was out of wedlock. The understanding was that the employer’s children would not be told of the pregnancy. There was some discussion as to when she would go and the employer said that he would pay her three months’ salary upon termination of her employment.

When the employer could not find another au pair to replace her, he invited her to continue working for another two months, which she did. The employer said it had ultimately been a consensual termination as she had accepted that her services would be terminated on the basis he had discussed with her. Based on the facts the court found that there had been no agreement during the pre-employment interview that her services would be terminated if she fell pregnant.

However, even if there had been such an agreement, the employer’s world views were inconsistent with the constitution and an agreement of that nature would be contra bonos mores (against the legal convictions of the community) and thus unenforceable. The court found that the fact that the employee had stoically accepted her fate at the time of the discussion surrounding the termination of her employment did not mean that the termination was consensual. The court found that the termination amounted to a dismissal.

But could the dismissal be justified on the basis of the inherent requirements of the job?

The court found that not being pregnant or a parent could not be regarded as an inherent requirement of the job. Her dismissal was therefore based on unfair discrimination for a reason related to her pregnancy. This made it an automatically unfair dismissal. The court awarded her the equivalent of 12 months’ compensation for the unfair dismissal and a further R25 000 for the impairment of her dignity and self-esteem. In considering the amount of the compensation, the court took into account the fact that the employer had tried to be fair and did what he considered just, even though the family values of the employer did not “accord with the current societal norms as expressed in the Labour Relations Act”.

This case illustrates how an employer might still fall foul of the law without fully realising it.

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