Racial slur: Old Mutual in court

OLD Mutual has landed in a messy court wrangle over an alleged racial slur by one of its employees.

The SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union has taken on the insurer on behalf of Xolile Finca, who was allegedly referred to by an offensive term.

Finca and his union claim that Old Mutual failed to act properly against Jenny Burger, a white woman who shared his open-plan office.

He has asked the Cape Town Labour Court to find Old Mutual and Burger guilty of unlawful discrimination under Employment Equity laws and is seeking R100000 in compensation.

The spat started in April 2003 when, after an office reorganisation, employee Zerina Jeffries claimed to have overheard Burger asking their manager, Barbara van Zyl: "Hoekom sit jy my langsaan die [Why do you put me next to the] kaffirs?"

After Jeffries confronted Van Zyl, Burger was given a verbal warning, in force for three months.

Two weeks later, Jeffries told two black staff members, Finca and Amanda Dikeni, about Burger's remark after one of them asked why Burger had moved desks. Finca burst into tears and confronted Van Zyl, who said she hadn' t wanted to "hurt his feelings" by telling him what had happened. Burger apologised to all three employees.

Satawu demanded further action. Burger appeared before a disciplinary hearing and was fired in November. But she appealed, and was reinstated.

"The chairman of the appeal committee found that Van Zyl had committed "a very serious error of judgment" by following the "informal" route of a verbal warning instead of a "formal disciplinary inquiry".

Finca told the initial disciplinary hearing he could not understand how, after working with colleagues for five years, they could "call other people kaffirs but [smile] with them".

Old Mutual's human resource manager, Nicky Bicket, said the use of racist language in the company was a "dismissable offence".

The Labour Court this week reserved judgment.