A woman who was accused of giving false evidence and misleading information after she picked her colleague as the father of her child was awarded R156,000 following her dismissal.

The woman worked as a debtor’s clerk in the company from October 2018 until she was dismissed in April 2023.

The woman had been involved in a romantic relationship with a colleague who worked as a chef and lived on the premises of the employer. The woman also had another romantic relationship with another man.

She fell pregnant and went on maternity leave. Upon her return, she identified her colleague as the father of her child as she did not suspect the other man of being the father because she had protected sex with him.

She had a private discussion with her colleague about the child and her colleague disputed that he was the father of the child and refused to participate in a paternity test.

The woman then approached the maintenance court seeking an order that her colleague pay maintenance toward her child. The maintenance court was aware that the man was disputing paternity, and it ordered police serve on him a notice to participate in a paternity test.

The police served the notice at work where a commotion erupted. In the fullness of time, the man complied with the court notice and took paternity test. The results came back and didn’t find any relations between him and the child.

When the employer became aware of these results, it decided to charge the woman and dismiss her for “giving false information or evidence, deliberately giving untrue erroneous or misleading information”.

Unsatisfied with her dismissal, she referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the Bargaining Council where she initially sought reinstatement with full retrospective effect but later changed her mind and claimed compensation instead.

At the arbitration hearing, the employer’s first witness, testified that he was the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing. He said he applied his mind to the fact that the trust relationship between the woman and her colleague was damaged as the man was put through the trauma of being accused of being a father.

“Giving false information or evidence, deliberately giving untrue erroneous or misleading information by saying someone is the father of your child, going to the maintenance court, bringing the SAPS to the company. If she had brought them to his house that wouldn’t have been a problem, but inside the company premises is not on,” said the chairperson.

However, the witness accepted that the man lived on the employer’s premises, hence police had served the court notice on him at the workplace. He also confirmed that the woman was not charged for police coming to the workplace but was charged for making untrue statements about the man being the father of her child. 

Meanwhile, the woman argued that the incident did not involve the employer, but it was about conduct outside the workplace.

When making a ruling, the commissioner found that the woman had not committed misconduct and that her dismissal was substantively unfair.  She was awarded compensation in the amount of R156,000 being her eight months’ salary.

Unhappy with the decision, the company sought relief in the Labour Court in Johannesburg where it argued that the commissioner’s decision was not reasonable.

Acting judge Vuyo Mkwibiso presided over the matter and found that the woman was not dishonest at all, as she honestly did suspect him to be the father. She asked him to take a paternity test, which he declined; thus, she had to go the maintenance route.

“The employee’s conduct did not amount to misconduct. She was clearly not dishonest at all. An allegation of dishonesty would presuppose that she knew that her colleague was not the father of her child, but she nevertheless accused him of being the father of her child…The mere fact that the employee’s suspicion was incorrect does not mean she committed misconduct,” said the judge.

The company’s review application was dismissed.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

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