What happens when workplace relationships go sour, especially where one employee is the subordinate of the other? Does the law have anything to say on this or offer any protection? Scorpion Legal Protection discusses.

South African labour laws do not explicitly speak to workplace relationships between consenting adults. What’s more important here is the company’s policies – while many employers are fine with workplace relationships, some will not allow it, and will say so in their policies. When you start working for an employer, your employment contract is one of the most important documents you should scrutinise, but it is not the only one. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the company’s policies as well, and if these are not explained to you or given to you in black and white, ask for them. The policies should clearly state how the company deals with workplace relationships.

Being victimised

What can happen, especially in situations where one person is a more senior employee than the other, is that the relationship ends, and one employee is victimised by the other. This can take many forms, including physical or verbal aggression. Victimisation where an employee is forced to have sex with another employee ‘or else’, or is physically assaulted, is a crime, and should be reported both to the company’s HR and to the police.

But victimisation can also take the form of someone sabotaging your work, setting deliberately impossible deadlines so that you fail, criticising you unfairly and trying to humiliate you by doing it publicly – basically, trying to get you fired for being incompetent. It becomes a workplace bullying situation that can cause immense stress to the person experiencing it, to the point where this person has no option but to leave.

There are a number of ways you could use the law to take action against being unjustly treated in the workplace:

• You could refer your case as unfair discrimination to the CCMA in terms of the Employment Equity Act.
• If you’ve been unfairly dismissed, you could look at a case of unfair dismissal in terms of Section 187 of the Labour Relations Act.
• If your working situation became so intolerable that you felt you had no option but to resign, you could have a case of constructive dismissal, which can be referred to the CCMA.

It is always advisable to get legal advice on your specific situation. Scorpion’s legal professionals are here for you. Click here to join.

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*This is only basic legal advice and cannot be relied on solely. The information is correct at the time of being sent to publishing.