Double Jeopardy As A Result Of An Arbitration Award

Summary
The Labour Appeal Court has confirmed that, while employers are not categorically barred from instituting disciplinary action more than once arising from the same factual matrix, they may not do so where a binding arbitration award has already imposed a sanction for the misconduct in question. The Court held that the dismissal of an employee who had already been sanctioned by way of unpaid suspension amounted to unfair “double jeopardy”.

Key facts
The employee, an accountant employed by a municipality, was dismissed after attempts were made from his work computer to access the municipality’s bank account without authorisation. At the first arbitration, the arbitrator accepted that password-sharing was customary in the department and that it could not be established that the employee himself had attempted the access. His dismissal