Employee alleges victimisation

A FORMER Old Mutual Finance employee is accusing the company of not complying with the labour laws and victimising him.

Seelan Pillay, 33, had worked as a financial adviser for Old Mutual Finance for eight years. He resigned in February after a dispute.

Pillay had sent out a group e-mail to colleagues informing them about the outcomes of a labour dispute the employees had.

Before December 2017, the company had been exempted by the Labour Department from paying out workers’ sick leave, annual leave and family responsibility leave. This exemption was revoked after workers submitted an application to the department.

“On the day of the outcome, it was agreed by my union’s secretary-general and co-workers that I should e-mail staff members working on my floor about the outcome of the Labour Department exemption,” he said.

To Pillay’s surprise, he said, the following day he was suspended and hauled before a disciplinary hearing.

“They said I breached the company’s e-mail policy. In addition, they said I had worn a union T-shirt to work, and that was a breach of the dress code policy.

“I didn’t understand as there was evidence that many other co-workers had sent group e-mails before and nothing was done to them.

“Secondly, no one spoke to me about the issue of wearing a union T-shirt the day I wore it,” said Pillay.

“It was clear to me that they were not worried about the breach; the disciplinary was just a way of getting rid of me,” he said.

Old Mutual’s general manager customer solutions, Kanyisa Ncemane, said the allegations by Pillay were not true: “We believe we are aligned to all the relevant legislation and continue to engage with relevant internal and external stakeholders on the matter.”