DISCIPLINARY HANDLING SKILLS FOR SHOP STEWARDS

3 days plus exercises for POE.

This programme is specifically targeted at shop stewards and trade union representatives.

Especially designed for shop stewards this programme covers:-

• how to assist an employee in counselling and corrective  disciplinary interviews;
• the formal referral system and the positive role a shop steward can play in identifying troubled employees and encouraging them to seek assistance;
• basic LRA requirements in respect of dismissals;
• analysing charges of misconduct, investigating the circumstances and preparing to assist an employee in an enquiry;
• how to present the case for the employee including how to lead evidence, cross-examine witnesses, make a convincing closing argument and argue extenuating and mitigating factors to lessen the sanction and determining grounds for appeal.

Two DVDs – The Case of Ed Khan and The Case of Zaks Jele are used to illustrate the role of a shop steward in disciplinary matters.
Learners develop skills through participation in practical exercises and role-plays based on actual incidents. Learners each receive a handy Ready Reference booklet covering Discipline & Grievance Handling.

MANAGING POOR PERFORMANCE & INCAPACITY

2 days

This programme is targeted at middle and junior managers, team leaders, supervisors, foremen, superintendents and trade union representatives.

Based on a proven system, which integrates medical referrals and professional counselling/rehabilitation with the corrective disciplinary requirements of the LRA, this programme takes a fresh look at discipline in the workplace. It equips learners with the knowledge and skills to confront an employee whose performance or conduct is unsatisfactory and to take appropriate corrective action at an early stage, thereby avoiding the unpleasantness, time wasting and conflict that goes with dismissals.

The course covers:-

• LRA requirements for dealing with poor performance;
• incapacity and acts of minor misconduct;
• problem solving and counselling techniques;
• how to issue a warning;
• practical exercises and role plays of typical situations encountered at the workplace;
• how to recognise the symptoms of a troubled employee;
• how to use a formal referral system (via an EAP, if applicable) to establish and address the root causes of the employee’s behaviour through medical evaluation or professional counselling and/or rehabilitation;
• substance abuse and the impact of HIV/AIDS in the workplace are also covered.

The 50 minute DVD which ‘drives’ the course features three different cases and is broken into five modules covering:-

• how to identify employee shortcomings;
• LRA fairness requirements;
• conducting a counselling interview;
• reprimanding an employee;
• the formal referral for medical evaluation and rehabilitative treatment for alcoholism;
• dealing with poor performance;
• issuing a written warning; and
• recognising improvement in an employee.

Learners receive a handy Ready Reference Booklet with this course.

PRACTICAL LABOUR LAW

2 days – 3 days if learners are to be assessed plus exercises for POE

This programme is targeted at middle and junior managers, team leaders, supervisors, foremen, superintendents and trade union representatives.

The course provides a basic platform for labour relations training. The material therefore, including the accompanying instructional DVD, has been designed in Chapters so that if learners are not being assessed, content which is not required may be omitted. Three DVDs are used in the programme – The Kenny Kunene Case featuring an assault on a supervisor during a strike, Selecting for Excellence - The Incompetent Interviewer and the main instructional DVD, Employment Rights & Duties, which ‘drives’ the course, is divided into the following chapters:-

• Overview of Labour Legislation, including common law and contracts of employment.
  Organisational Rights including the role and duties of shop stewards.
• Discipline & Dismissals under the LRA. This is a pre-requisite for B&A disciplinary courses and covers the meaning of dismissal; automatically unfair dismissals; other unfair dismissals and unfair labour practices; disciplinary rules - minor and major transgressions; corrective disciplinary measures; probation and dismissals for poor performance; terminations for incapacity; procedural fairness in misconduct cases including a procedurally unfair enquiry (learners are encouraged to identify errors); the roles of parties in a disciplinary enquiry including the difference between inquisitorial and adversarial enquiries, and the procedure for an adversarial enquiry; making a finding - the balance of probabilities vs beyond reasonable doubt; substantive fairness and disciplinary appeals.
• Grievance & Dispute Procedures.
• Key aspects of the BCEA and EEA.
• LRA/EEA Interview Requirements.
• Key aspects of Skills Development legislation.

Learners receive a Ready Reference booklet with this course, which makes use of various participative training techniques to make what could be a ‘dry’ subject practical and interesting.

INITIATING DISCIPLINARY ENQUIRES

2 days plus exercises for POE.

This programme is targeted at middle and junior managers, team leaders, supervisors, foremen, superintendents and trade union representatives.

The course covers:-

• LRA requirements in respect of dismissals for misconduct;
• how to investigate an incident and prepare notice of a disciplinary enquiry, including collecting evidence and drafting the charges;
• how to prepare for a disciplinary enquiry including preparing witnesses, preparing for cross-examination, preparing opening statements and closing arguments;
• presenting your case including how to lead evidence and cross-examine witnesses are covered in this ‘hands-on’ course.
  

Learners receive a handy ready reference booklet and an ‘Initiator’s Pack’ giving them a checklist and step-by-step approach to initiating at a disciplinary enquiry.

Clients may choose one of two DVDs to augment the course. The Jabu Gumede Case features a disciplinary enquiry into an employee’s alleged falsification of a sick certificate. The shop steward is very aggressive and confrontational in his approach. Alternatively, The Zola Zubane Case features the case of an employee who walks off the job and stays away the following day, resulting in a major client problem. The shop steward displays a less confrontational but nonetheless competent approach when representing the employee.

RULES OF EVIDENCE

1 day plus exercises for POE if learners are to be assessed.

This programme is targeted at all persons involved in disciplinary enquiries and arbitrations. It is normally run in conjunction with Chairing Disciplinary Enquiries and Practical Arbitration Skills but may be run as a stand-alone course.

The programme is ‘driven’ by a DVD, narrated by Jack Devnarain and augmented by a PowerPoint presentation.

The DVD, consisting of 16 chapters covers:-

• the principles of natural justice;
• what is evidence;
• presumptions; the relevance and reliability of evidence;
• cautionary rules;
• hearsay and opinion evidence;
• direct and circumstantial evidence;
• character and previous fact evidence;
• privilege and privileged information;
• documents as evidence; photographs, video and electronic evidence;
• real evidence and polygraph evidence;
• entrapment and evidence from computers;and
• alco-testing.

In order to make what can be a ‘dry’ subject interesting, case studies based on recent case law are used to illustrate the various subjects.

The Case Studies cover:-

• sexual harassment and affairs at work;
• video and electronic media as evidence;
• shop stewards misconduct;
• dishonesty and conflicts of interest;
• insubordination and selective dismissal;
• alcohol and substance abuse;
• disputes over employment and fixed term contracts;
• racism and unfair discrimination;
• constructive dismissal; settlement agreements;
• assault and fighting at work; and
• dismissals for incapacity through illness and incarceration.
  

CHAIRING DISCIPLINARY ENQUIRES

1 day plus exercises for POE (2 days if run in conjunction with Rules of Evidence as recommended).

This programme is targeted at disciplinary chairpersons.

This course covers:-

• LRA requirements in respect of dismissals for misconduct;
• the procedure for a disciplinary enquiry;
• how to facilitate the leading of evidence and control cross-examination so as to ensure a fair hearing;
• how to weigh and evaluate evidence and make a substantively fair finding;
• considering extenuating, aggravating and mitigating factors;
• determining an appropriate substantively fair sanction; and
• preparing a written finding that will stand the scrutiny of CCMA arbitrator.

Learners receive a Disciplinary Enquiry Record/Checklist, which they are required to use in a role-play based on an actual case. They also receive a Ready Reference booklet.

Clients have the choice of two DVDs to augment the course – The Zola Zubane Case (described above under Initiating Disciplinary Enquiries) and The Grant Ross Case. This latter video deals with an enquiry into charges against an engineer who is accused of soliciting gifts from a supplier in return for his passing the supplier’s invoices for payment. It provides an excellent example of how evidence should be led and an enquiry conducted.

HANDLING CONFLICT AND GRIEVANCES

2 days plus exercises for POE

This programme is targeted at middle and junior managers, team leaders, supervisors, foremen, superintendents and trade union representatives.

This course is aligned to a unit standard, which has not been well written. If learners are not being assessed certain sections may be omitted to suit the needs of the client and the background of the learners.

This course covers:-

• examining the nature and sources of conflict in the workplace;
• the principles of power and their relevance to the handling of conflict in the workplace and procedures for resolving conflict in the workplace;and
• behavioural styles including the difference between aggression and assertiveness and the Transactional Analysis model for understanding conflict;

Techniques for handling conflict are illustrated in a DVD and are then practiced in role plays.

These include:-

• techniques for strategising and planning for a confrontation;
• how to do an expectation test; how to define key issues and elements;
• how to determine key principles and set bargaining limits;
• reflective listening; various questioning techniques and tactics;
• how to confront a person who is offending you in a constructive way; t
• he broken record technique; behaviour labelling;and
• behaviours to avoid and signalling techniques are portrayed in various workplace interactions.

A module in the DVD deals with:

• techniques for negotiating resolutions to conflict;
• the need to be flexible and look for alternatives;
• how to sort the people from the problem;
• how to get around barriers to resolution;
• the difference between a threat and a warning; and
• the importance of summarising and testing understanding when concluding an agreement – even if it is an informal agreement.

The last module deals with the typical situation all managers and supervisors will face at some time or other – conflict when team members fall out. A personal assistant and a salesperson get into a ‘shouting match’, which the manager has to resolve. How to handle an employee complain and conduct a grievance hearing is covered and augmented by a DVD, The Thuli Nokwe Case which deals with an employee’s grievance when she applies for a job and is unsuccessful. Employment equity is one of the issues that the manager in the DVD has to deal with.

Learners receive a Ready Reference booklet with this course.

PRACTICAL ARBITRATION SKILLS

2 days (3 days if run in conjunction with Rules of Evidence which is recommended)

This programme is targeted at the representatives of employers and/or employees in dismissal arbitrations.

This ‘hands-on’ course covers:-

• how to use the conciliation process to resolve appropriate dismissal disputes, including points in limine, determining when to settle instead of going to arbitration and the procedure for private arbitrations;
• how to prepare for an arbitration including collecting and sorting evidence;
• preparing witnesses;
• preparing for cross-examination, preparing a bundle of documents, preparing opening statements and closing arguments;
• how to present your case in the arbitration including leading evidence-in-chief;
• leading evidence regarding documents and exhibits, cross-examining opposing witnesses and presenting a closing argument.

A DVD, The Case of Nad Govender, is based on an actual case that went before the CCMA and Labour Court is used to illustrate the process followed in an arbitration. The DVD deals with the dismissal arbitration of a heavy-duty vehicle driver stemming from an incident when the employee swore at and was insubordinate to a senior manager.

A second DVD based on an actual case that resulted in a strike and was eventually resolved through voluntary arbitration, is used as a case study, which learners are required to role-play as representatives for the employer and employee in an arbitration. This deals with the sensitive topic of what to do when an employee threatens a supervisor. As an interesting additional exercise, learners are asked to represent either the employer or the employee in an arbitration resulting from the employee’s dismissal as a result of the incident.