Looking for guidance from the Industrial Court in relation to questions of justifiable disciplinary action for breach of work rules is always useful in establishing an employee manual that is acceptable throughout the organisation.
That does not mean such guidelines do not and cannot change.
Guidelines may change as the environment changes. Change can advance performance standards or retard them.
During the lockdowns, curfew was from 10 pm to 5 am. In companies still operating three shifts, for example, usually 6 am-2 pm; 2 pm-10 pm and 10 pm-6 am, people who were on the 6 am-2 pm shift, but live more than an hour away from work, considering the difficulty in finding public transport, they could not get to work on time, so during that period, late-coming and absenteeism rules may have had to be altered, then regularised when the curfew ended.
In some cases, a recognised union refused to allow any change in work rules without negotiations taking place, as the Industrial Court stated is its right and union agreement achieved, even if this interrupted the ability of a company to operate.
Law makers obviously did not take this into consideration.
The employment relationship is sometimes a complex one, tied up with the complexities of human interactions, emotional responses and the individual baggage we all carry.
Emotional integration is often taken for granted although that is the basis for employee motivation and decision making. Motivation is also the basis of quality performance. It is tied up with self-esteem, loyalty and trust.
Work from home module
The recent announcement by the Minister of Labour that work regulations for public service employees are to change to encompass the work from home module, was greeted with a certain amount of scepticism by the public.
There has been no indication whatsoever if this is a result of a change in terms and conditions of employment in the public service negotiations for an umbrella collective agreement covering all employees of the government, or if it is an attempt at trading a four-day work week against a four per cent wage increase.
There are valid arguments to support the work-from-home concept.
It is part of a changing environment. In some countries this is justified by encroaching digitalisation which requires fewer human operatives. The theory is that this is doable by moving responsibility from civil servants to members of the public.
This is part of the national policy push towards digital education so that in a few years, everyone will know how to do interactions with government departments online, eliminating the need for 4,000 or so people now employed, thus cutting the expense of hiring more clerical staff and paying pensions in the future to people who, it is claimed, seldom work to standard anyway.
The theory is that what now requires 9,000 people to get done, in the future, this will be done by 4,000 or 5,000, as the public will be able to do it all themselves, online.
All schools are moving towards digitalisation, we ar
