Imperial Holdings seeks to take corrective action over gender, and race relations
Board to take corrective action to address deficiencies in gender, race relations culture
IMPERIAL Holdings chief executive Mark Lamberti, who was found guilty in a high court judgment of impairing the dignity of a former employee of the listed transport and mobility group, has resigned effective from the end of this month.
Lamberti’s resignation follows his resignations earlier this month as a board member of power utility Eskom, and earlier this week from the board of Business Leadership South Africa.
Imperial said yesterday Lamberti’s resignation arose from the recent judgment in which the high court found in favour of an ex-employee and against Associated Motor Holdings (AMH), Imperial and Lamberti regarding a series of incidents that commenced in 2014.
Adila Chowan accused AMH and Lamberti of race and gender discrimination after she left the group in 2015, and claimed Lamberti referred to her as an employment equity candidate, and that she would need as many as four more years to develop leadership skills.
Imperial said yesterday that its board had been aware of the developments that culminated in the judgment, which it had carefully studied and it accepted the conclusions reached.
It added that in addition to finding the ex-employee had suffered damages arising from dismissal by AMH, Lamberti was found to have impaired the dignity of the ex-employee during a conversation on April 15, 2015.
Lamberti has unreservedly for hurt.
“The board has noted the content and tone of the judgment, apologised any unintended in which there is no finding of defamation, racism or sexism, despite extensive and frequently inaccurate publicity directed at Mr Lamberti suggesting that there was.
“In light of this, Mr Lamberti has resigned in the interests of the Imperial group and its stakeholders, who may be prejudiced by such publicity,” the company said.
Imperial said damages in the case had to be proven in due course.
It said the group’s board had further decided to implement corrective action to address deficiencies in Imperial’s gender and race relations culture highlighted in the judgment, bearing in mind that substantial progress in gender and racial transformation within its ranks had been made over the past three years.
Imperial said Lamberti had served the group with distinction since March 2014, and thanked him for his excellent leadership and commitment to the group.
It said Lamberti led a multifaceted portfolio, organisation and management restructuring, a key objective of which was to accelerate executive development and transformation to align Imperial’s employee and leadership profile with the economically active demographics of South Africa.
Imperial confirmed that progress with the implementation of its plans to unbundle and separately list Motus, comprising its vehicle businesses, was at an advanced stage and no obstacles were currently anticipated.
A final decision on the unbundling would, as previously announced, be taken before the end of June this year, it said.
Osman Arbee, currently chief executive of the Motus division and group chief financial officer from 2013 to last year, had been appointed group chief executive from May 1 this year, in addition to his position as chief executive of Motus.
Imperial said Arbee, who joined the group in 2005, had been intimately involved in the affairs of the group at the highest levels, and was well placed to assume leadership and continuity of the board approved strategy that commenced in late 2014.
Shares in Imperial were up 0.84 percent yesterday to close at R238.69.