By Neelam Rahim

Commissioner Richard Byrne ruled that Kgomotso Tshatshu’s dismissal was substantively unfair.

The matter involves a disgruntled employee from Baroque Medical (Pty) who took proceedings against the corporate. This was after she did not follow the company’s mandatory vaccination policy.

The woman, Kgomotso Tshatshu, was retrenched a year ago for not taking the jab. She has since won her case of unfair dismissal, and Commissioner Richard Byrne ruled that Baroque Medical would need to compensate her a year’s salary.

This is almost R300 000 and must be paid by 25 July 2022.

Tshatshu worked as a Senior Inventory Controller for a corporate that provides medical equipment to hospitals. In her evidence, she stated that she did not get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Her reason was that she was petrified of the vaccine because of a negative response she endured from a flu vaccine a decade ago. Tshatshu revealed that she wasn’t required to travel to hospitals due to her line of labour.

After informing her company of her choice, she was asked to provide a doctor’s note. Tshatshu complied; on the other hand, Baroque Medical requested that she visit a specialist.

However, the specialist refused to put in writing an in-depth report for Tshathu because she wasn’t sick at the time.

In their argument, Baroque Medical said they had a strict and inflexible policy and dismissed four employees who refused to be vaccinated.

The company said the aim of the policy was geared toward minimising the transmission of Covid-19 and improving the health of the workers.

CCMA senior commissioner Pieter Venter explains how they acquired this outcome: “Part of the finding is that the employer was very inflexible during this instance, and listeners must differentiate here because the commissioner also found that there was no health assessment done, there was lack of evidence during this regard and thus the chance assessment which forms an important aspect of mandatory vaccination wasn’t considered,” says Venter.