Our courts have adapted in many different ways to the “new normal” of the pandemic and its resultant lockdown and health and safety issues, and now from the Labour Court comes an important new development in regard to the use of video conferencing (in this case via Zoom) by an employer contemplating a large-scale retrenchment exercise.
The trade union involved objected to the final consultation meeting being held over Zoom, and when the employer nevertheless issued retrenchment notices after proceeding with the meeting online in the union’s absence, the union cried foul and asked the Court to declare the process procedurally unfair. The Court’s decision to affirm the use of video conferencing is particularly significant now that retrenchments are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of our embattled economy.
