TMT Services and Supplies (Pty) Ltd v Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and Others

The third respondent, Ms Felicia Lungile, was employed by TMT Services and Supplies (Pty) Ltd as a training officer on a five-year fixed-term contract, of which approximately two years had elapsed. She was instructed by her immediate superior to attend a meeting at 07h00 on 26 April 2013 to discuss an audit report on her work performance. Lungile expressed discomfort with the presence of a colleague at the meeting and later sent an email requesting postponement, but she was expressly instructed to attend. Despite this, she did not attend the meeting and instead went to her usual workplace, effectively engineering a postponement. She was dismissed for gross insubordination. An arbitrator upheld the fairness of the dismissal. On review, the Labour Court set aside the award and ordered payment of the remaining term of her contract. TMT appealed to the Labour Appeal Court.

The appeal was upheld; the Labour Court’s judgment was set aside; and the arbitration award confirming the fairness of the dismissal was reinstated. No costs order was made.

The case reaffirms the Sidumo test as the controlling standard for reviewing arbitration awards and cautions Labour Courts against conflating review with appeal. It clarifies that a single act of deliberate defiance can constitute insubordination and that dismissal may be justified where managerial authority is undermined. The judgment underscores the limited scope of judicial interference with arbitrators’ decisions on sanction.