Labour Court orders CPUT to pay over R497,000 after employee dismissed over ill health

The Labour Court in Cape Town has found that the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) unfairly dismissed a long-serving employee and ordered the university to pay R497,948, overturning part of a prior arbitration award.

Court overturns arbitration finding on substantive fairness

Judge Molatelo Makhura reviewed a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) arbitration award and set aside the commissioner’s finding that the dismissal was substantively fair. The commissioner had earlier found the dismissal procedurally unfair and awarded the employee one month’s salary, but had concluded the dismissal itself was substantively fair.

Employer failed to investigate accommodations or medical boarding

The court held that CPUT did not properly investigate whether reasonable accommodation could enable the employee to continue working, nor did it properly consider medical boarding as an alternative to dismissal. Judge Makhura found that the university relied on historical workplace transfers that predated the incapacity process and failed to demonstrate that reasonable accommodation was meaningfully explored during the incapacity inquiry.

Legal obligations highlighted

The judgment emphasised that when an employee’s inability to work arises from ill health, an employer must do more than conclude incapacity: it must investigate the extent of the incapacity, assess reasonable accommodation measures and consider alternatives to dismissal before terminating employment.

Employee’s long service and medical history

The woman began working for CPUT in May 1996 and was serving as an Administrator in Human Capital when she was dismissed. Between 2015 and 2018 she was seconded to various departments and returned to her substantive post in January 2019.

Her health difficulties began to escalate in 2018 when she was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. She later suffered physical trauma, including the amputation of a finger in August 2021 and wrist surgery in 2023.

After her psychological diagnosis she was referred to occupational therapist Al‑Marie Botes, who carried out multiple assessments and identified a severe mismatch between the employee’s cognitive capacity under pressure and the stringent deadlines required by her role, finding that her chronic condition substantially impaired productivity. Later reports from late 2022 indicated mild psychological improvements following therapy.

Incapacity inquiry and dismissal

Rather than continuing to implement the recommended workplace accommodations, CPUT initiated a formal incapacity inquiry in June 2023. The employee was summarily dismissed in July 2023. The court found that CPUT refused to facilitate or properly consider the employee’s application for medical boarding once the incapacity process began, and that medical boarding was an obvious alternative that should have been fully investigated.

Remedy ordered

The Labour Court reviewed and set aside the CCMA finding on substantive fairness and substituted a finding that the dismissal was substantively unfair. CPUT was ordered to pay the former employee eleven months’ remuneration, amounting to R497,948, in addition to the one month’s compensation the commissioner had previously awarded for procedural unfairness.

Reporting based on the Labour Court judgment as described in the source material.