National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa obo Aubrey Dhludhlu and 147 Others v Marley Pipe Systems (SA) (Pty) Limited

Following dissatisfaction with a sectoral wage increase in the plastics industry, NUMSA members employed by Marley Pipe Systems embarked on an unprotected strike on 14 July 2017. During the strike, a group of employees severely assaulted the employer’s head of human resources, Mr Ferdinand Christiaan Steffens. After disciplinary proceedings, 148 employees were dismissed for assault (largely on the basis of common purpose) and participation in an unprotected strike. Only 12 employees were positively identified as having physically assaulted Mr Steffens. Forty-one employees, including one shop steward who arrived after the assault, were neither identified as perpetrators nor proven to have actively associated with the assault. Their dismissals were nevertheless upheld by the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court on the basis that they were present, did not intervene, and did not distance themselves from the violence.

Leave to appeal was granted; the appeal was upheld. The 41 employees were found not guilty of assault. The Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court orders relating to assault were set aside. The matter was remitted to the Labour Court, differently constituted, to reconsider an appropriate sanction solely in relation to participation in the unprotected strike.

This case is significant for clarifying the limits of the doctrine of common purpose in labour law, particularly in the context of strike-related violence. It protects employees from collective guilt and confirms that substantive fairness under section 23 of the Constitution requires proof of individual complicity. The judgment curbs the expansion of employer-friendly presumptions that could lead to dismissal of innocent bystanders and reinforces evidentiary discipline in mass dismissal cases.