Former Woolworths employee who called cashiers dumb loses Labour Court appeal

A former employee at retail giant, Woolworths, lost her appeal at the Labour Court after she was dismissed for calling two cashiers dumb.

Gladys Arunachellam, who worked as a supervisor, was employed by Woolworths for 28 years.

She was fired in May 2019 following a disciplinary hearing which lasted only for 15 minutes.

She went to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) where the matter could not be resolved, and a certificate of non-resolution was issued. 

She then sought relief at the Labour Court in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal where she wanted to be reinstated with a back pay.

During the hearing, Omar Taarik Divan, who was a trainee at the time, testified that on March 14, 2019, he and Claudia Govender, another trainee, were working at the textile tills and the Pay Point Controller, Sherryl Jessica Balaise asked Arunachellam to take them to customer service tills and Arunachellam said they would rather not come that week because she had dumb people working at the tills.

Govender also testified and gave the same statement given by Divan.

A store manager, Nivashni Bramdeo who also acted as the chairperson during Arunachellam's  disciplinary hearing, testified that employees were very upset and said Arunachellam showed no remorse over her actions. 

Another store manager, Dennis Mkhize said the incident was reported to him by an aggrieved employee, Phumelela Kweyama.

He testified that Kweyama said that she was coming back from lunch when she saw Arunachellam standing with Sheryl, and the two trainees, Taarik and Claudia and she overhead Sheryl telling Arunachellam to take Taarik and Claudia because she was done with them in her department.

Kweyama said Arunachellam responded by saying: "Not today, because I have got a bunch of dumb people working there today."

Kweyama added that she reported the incident to the store manager, Mkhize, who then initiated an investigation.

Natasha Pather, from Human Resource, confirmed that she was aware of the incident and the charge levelled against Arunachellam.

She testified that there was tension between Indians and black staff who called themselves Petros Black at Gateway Store. She explained that Petros Black was a movement of staff members who acted for themselves as they felt that they were being discriminated.

She said that Petros Black movement was not limited to Gateway stores, but it spilled over to the other stores such as the Durban store on West Street.

She further testified that the perception was that Indians were given preference in respect of appointments, promotion and approach in general, they were just treated differently or better than black staff members.

Meanwhile, only one witness testified in support of Arunachellam, Sheryl, she confirmed that she was present on the day of the incident.

According to Sherly, Arunachellam never said the cashiers were dumb, she only heard the word confused.

In her testimony, Arunachellam also denied using the word dumb when referring to the cashiers, she said she used the word confused.

Acting judge E.T Mhlongo presided over the matter said the dismissal was fair, however, Woolworths failed to give Arunachellam enough time to prepare for her case and as a result, she was awarded three months' salary.

"I aver that the 15 minutes given to the applicant (Arunachellam) was not enough. The commissioner failed to apply his mind when dealing with the question of procedural fairness.

"I am therefore inclined to award the applicant compensation of three months’ salary for failure to adhere to normal procedure which is payable within 30 days from the date of this judgment," said the judge.

sinenhlahla.masilela@iol.co.za

IOL News

NOTE: An earlier version of this story claimed the woman in question called "black cashiers dumb". There was no reference made to the race of the co-workers Gladys Arunachellam was reportedly referring to. There was no malice intended by this editorial oversight. IOL regrets the error.