Department of Health KwaZulu-Natal v Public Servants Association of South Africa and Others

Two emergency medical services employees, an Intermediate Life Support Paramedic (Pillay) and a Basic Ambulance Assistant (Tembe), were tasked with transporting a female patient from Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital to Murchison Hospital. Instead of completing the transfer, the employees drove the ambulance to their base in Port Shepstone and knocked off duty, leaving the patient inside the ambulance. The employer alleged that the patient was left unattended during transport, that both employees sat in the front of the ambulance, and that the patient was abandoned without proper handover. The employees denied this, claiming Tembe attended to the patient and that a proper handover was effected at the base. Following a disciplinary enquiry, both employees were dismissed. An arbitrator found the dismissals substantively fair (procedurally unfair only in Tembe’s case, without relief). The Labour Court reviewed and set aside the arbitration award and ordered reinstatement. The Department of Health appealed to the Labour Appeal Court.

The appeal was upheld. The Labour Court’s judgment was set aside and replaced with an order dismissing the review application, thereby restoring the arbitration award which upheld the substantive fairness of the dismissals.

The case reaffirms the limited scope of judicial interference in arbitration awards under the Labour Relations Act and emphasises that courts must respect commissioners’ credibility findings and factual assessments unless the outcome is unreasonable. It underscores the proper approach to resolving mutually destructive versions and reinforces the Sidumo reasonableness standard in review proceedings.