Woman’s ‘living hell’ under boss

ADM assistant’s ‘occupational distress’ during his alleged sex advances did not deter employer from fighting case

I find the applicant’s version to be more probable than the version presented by the respondent CCMA Commissioners

The past four years have been a living hell for an Amathole District Municipality (ADM) administration assistant after she was allegedly sexually harassed by her boss for nine months in one of their satellite offices.

A psychological diagnosis seen by the Daily Dispatch found she was suffering from “occupational distress”.

ADM, which is officially “broke” according to municipal manager, Thandekile Mnyimba, was ordered by the CCMA to pay the woman R150,000 as compensation for impairment of her dignity.

But the municipality kept on fighting. The case went as high as the Labour Court but ADM lost, with costs, three times.

In a bizarre turn of events, on July 3 the municipality fired the woman, drumming up a complaint that she misrepresented a Discovery Medical Aid claim in 2016.

At the start of the saga, after numerous attempts to have the matter dealt with internally, the employee, whose name is known to the Dispatch, approached the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The commission ruled in its findings that the official’s conduct constituted unfair discrimination and sexual harassment.

The commssioners accepted her evidence that her boss would allegedly inappropriately touch her and would threaten that, as he was her superior, he could get her fired.

Part of the arbitration award mentions a day where the boss made her perform sexual acts in their office – acts she knew nothing about and this had been deeply disturbing.

The evidence further states that she submitted a letter of grievances in November 2015 – and, despite this, the boss continued to victimise her, saying he would score her low on her appraisal. He would also talk about her to other colleagues.

In his defence, the boss accused the woman of flirting with him. He said she called him to her house pretending that she had a problem with a door latch.

He said she allegedly took him to the bedroom and tried to touch him.

This was refuted by the woman who said he had never gone to her house.

Commissioners Nowethu Ndiki and Phumelele Dhlodhlo ruled in her favour.

“I find the applicant’s version to be more probable than the version presented by the respondent … I must say at this stage that the evidence presented by [the respondent] was very flimsy and unbelievable.

“He refused to give a straight-forward answer at times. His evidence contains a number of improbabilities. It is difficult to accept anything he testified to and consequently it cannot be relied upon at all,” some parts of the ruling read.

The CCMA ordered the municipality to take action against the boss and report back within 30 days of the action taken.

However, the municipality took the CCMA award on appeal to the Labour Court which dismissed it with costs in January.

The municipality then applied for leave and this too was dismissed by the court – with costs – on June 29. Judge of the Labour Court MC Mamosebo said that there were no reasonable prospects of success on appeal.

Mnyimba said that the municipality was considering petitioning the Labour Appeal Court.

The ADM boss did not respond to calls for comment.