The Performing Arts Centre of the Free State (Pacofs) has taken the labour dispute regarding former employee Nicola Hasset to the Braamfontein Labour Court in Gauteng.
The late application was filed on 3 January for condonation to have the dispute reviewed and set aside.
Pacofs wants its decision to dismiss Hasset (first responder) to stand, and asks that the award be substituted with an order that the dismissal of Hasset was fair. Alternatively, Pacofs wants the matter to be remitted to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA, third respondent) for a hearing de novo in the arbitration proceedings before a commissioner other than Yul Marlon Garth Plaatjies (second respondent), commissioner for the CCMA.
The embattled state agency further requests that the execution of the arbitration award be stayed pending the final determination of the review application. Respondents who oppose the late application should then be ordered to pay the costs of the application jointly and/or severally the one paying and the other to be absolved.
Pacofs wants alternative relief from the Labour Court.
According to court papers, Pacofs has served summons to the three respondents, Hasset, Plaatjies and the CCMA.
In its late application to the Labour Court, Pacofs stated that the delay of nine months between December 2020 and August 2021, when the matter was first heard, “is no fault of the applicant, and the applicant believed that the first respondent had abandoned the matter.”
Pacofs alleges that no activity took place even though Hasset’s matter was postponed in December 2020.
“The third respondent erred in placing significant weight in the delay of the matter, and in placing the reason for the delay as the fault of the applicant (Pacofs) when refusing the application for postponement.”
At a hearing on 27 August, the CCMA found Pacofs’ dismissal of Hasset to be substantively unfair. It also stated that the agency failed to prove that she had been guilty of contravening workplace rules.
Pacofs was ordered to pay Hasset six months’ worth of salary and had until 15 September 2021 to comply.
At the hearing, chaired by Plaatjies, Hasset was found not guilty of committing any misconduct.
Hasset, who held the position of artistic coordinator at the agency for more than 12 years, was dismissed on 6 October 2020 after an internal hearing. Pacofs cited gross insubordination, gross dishonesty and misappropriation.
Hasset challenged the outcome and took the matter to the CCMA for arbitration, where she got a favourable ruling.
Pacofs did not request the findings to be reviewed.
The last-ditch effort to resort to the Labour Court has been backed by Sharon Snell, who has also submitted an oath and stated that the late filing of the application be condoned.
