Hard Lessons: Retrenched For Not Having A Master's Degree

Typically, when an employer seeks to justify the fairness of a dismissal based on its operational requirements they are doing so in the context of a retrenchment or a restructuring exercise. However, there are a number of decisions where an employer has been able to justify a dismissal on this ground in other contexts, For example, in SA Transport and Allied Workers Union and others v Khulani Security Services (Pty) Ltd the employer was able to justify the dismissal of employees on the basis of its operational requirements where the employee failed a polygraph test. The recent decision of the Labour Court Fatima Begum Sayed Ally Khan v Durban University of Technology provides another example.