Zwane and Others v Alert Fencing Contractors CC

The applicants were employees of Alert Fencing Contractors CC who were retrenched on 31 May 2004. They instituted unfair dismissal proceedings in the Labour Court. Due to the respondent’s legal representatives failing to attend a pre-trial conference (as a result of a wrongly diarised date), the Labour Court barred the respondent from defending the proceedings under rule 6(7) of the Labour Court Rules and granted default judgment in favour of the applicants without notice to the respondent. The respondent later applied for and obtained rescission of the default judgment. The applicants unsuccessfully appealed the rescission to the Labour Appeal Court and then sought leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The application for leave to appeal was dismissed. No order as to costs was made. The Registrar was directed to draw the Court’s concern about the excessive delay in finalising the unfair dismissal dispute to the attention of the Judge President and Registrar of the Labour Court.

The case confirms procedural fairness requirements in Labour Court proceedings, particularly that default judgments under rule 6(7) cannot be granted without notice to the affected party. It underscores the importance of proper notice and fair process, and highlights judicial concern about excessive delays in resolving labour disputes.