Telling your boss to 'f**k off' not okay, even if he swears: CCMA

25 November 2016 - 17:58 By Roxanne Henderson
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What do you get for hurling a barrage of F-bombs at your boss? Sacked of course‚ and in the case of accounts consultant Lee Ann Kruger three months’ salary.

Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

This when Enviroserve Waste Management went to the Labour Court in Port Elizabeth to set aside an arbitration award that found her dismissal was substantively unfair and won.

Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje last week found that the company was right to dismiss Kruger for the “insulting‚ demeaning‚ disrespectful and uncouth” language she used speaking to her superior.

Kruger – who‚ on her own admission‚ was predisposed to using foul language at work – was dismissed in July 2013 for dropping the F-bomb.

Told by her boss to get out of her silo‚ she replied: ‘I am f….ng cross with you‚ what do you mean by ‘getting out of my silo’? You do not give a f….ng sh..t for us in East London’.

As a parting shot‚ Kruger allegedly said to him ‘F…k you’ and dropped the phone on him.

Funny story about Enviroserve Waste Management it seems is everyone‚ even the boss‚ swore a lot.

So when Kruger challenged her dismissal at the Commission of Conciliation‚ Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)‚ it may not come as a surprise that this counted against her former employer.

Theodorus Pienaar‚ Kruger's regional manager who was on the receiving end of her foul language‚ testified that given the robust nature of their working environment staff regularly swore.

Former employee Moses Jalmeni further testified that when Pienaar told him to “F....k off” he returned the favour and was not fired for it.

When Kruger gave evidence‚ she said she was embarrassed that she swore a lot but that bossman Pienaar knew this about her.

She further claimed that her language as not directed at him but was rather “descriptive”.

Given the fact that Enviroserve did not suspend Kruger prior to her disciplinary hearing‚ took no precautionary measures after the incident‚ failed to show that the relationship between Kruger and Pienaar had broken down after the F-bomb was dropped and failed to stick to its own disciplinary code‚ which states that the appropriate sanction for disrespect is a final written warning‚ the CCMA reinstated Kruger.

Her dismissal was replaced with a final written warning valid for 12 months from the date of the dismissal.

The CCMA had also ordered the company to give Kruger back-pay amounting to R169 421.45.

The Labour Court disagreed‚ however‚ and set aside Kruger's reinstatement.

“Kruger does indeed have good reasons to be embarrassed by the ease with which profanities come out of her mouth‚ especially in the workplace. Her conduct towards Pienaar demonstrated lack of respect‚ and invariably demeaned and destroyed the relationship between her and him as her immediate superior‚ and it can safely be concluded that such conduct had the effect of humiliating him in the extreme‚” Tlhotlhalemaje said.

Though the court cast some of the blame on Enviroserve for condoning foul language in the workplace over time‚ it ultimately found that the CCMA's decision to reinstate Kruger was not reasonable.

Tlhotlhalemaje ordered Kruger be paid three months' salary as calculated at the date of her dismissal.

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