Question: How can employee stand up for their rights in a case whereby Management / the manager is not fair based on the following points:

1. Some staff members will be released of duty at 13:00 where as their knock off time is 16:00 and the remaining staff 90 % of the time being non white staff will be let of @ 15 : 00 but the people that left at 13:00 will be given the same amount of hours as the ones that left @ 15:00.

2. Secondly people are being taken on personally by other staff members making remarks at them such as you ugly ,you too loud etc and when this is brought to management’s attention all that gets said is “you should learn to understand him or her.

3. Thirdly and lastly the very same manager will sit and gossip and make remarks such as “give them time they will eventually hang themselves ,or I wish I never hired him or her ,or she will not get far in this place not even a promotion etc with other staff members?

How does one get to a point of answering such questions and deal with such issues without getting yourself in a position where you will now be victimised or finding yourself on the wrong side of the law with what you believed was “employees rights”

Answer: Management has the right to release anyone off early from duties if they so wish even if this seems discriminatory and unfortunately nothing can be done about this practice as it is not illegal in any way. The only recourse you have if you are unhappy with the way you are spoken to, spoken about, or addressed, would be to lay a grievance with Senior Management. However, you must realise that once you do this reality will ensure that you become more of a target moving forward. Another form of recourse would be to institute an unfair labour practice claim with the CCMA, however, the target on you back will only grow larger. Unfortunately, the real world is not always fair. If there is a dominant union within the business, then I suggest that those who are feeling discriminated against join up and let the union take up your cause.

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