Man with sick note loses in Labour Court

The Labour Court in Cape Town has dismissed a review application brought by a man who was fired from his job even though he had a sick note.

Thabo Shole-Mashao, in for 702's John Perlman, asked employment lawyer Audrey Johnson to unpack the ruling.

She explained that most employers have an employment contract that says if you are absent for more than two days, you have to produce a doctor's note. However, the allegation against the employee in this case wasn't about the sick note, which he had, but was for failing to comply with the employer's rule to communicate his absence and how long he was going to be off for.

"And in this instance, the employee was already on three previous warnings for failing to communicate his absence," said Johnson.

"And what is very common, what we're seeing a lot of, is doctors issuing sick notes that don't say when the employee's return to work date will be. So you have a sick note confirming that the employee is ill but not how long the employee will be off for which is what happened in this instance," said Johnson.

So, what is the right procedure to follow if you're not feeling well?

Johnson stressed that, despite your sick note that you might only submit when you get back to work or that you may submit upfront, you MUST communicate with your line manager.

"The right thing to do is to communicate with your employer, either on every day that you'll be absent or up-front to say look I've been booked off from in this case the employee was booked off from the 20^th of April to the 22^nd of April."

To listen to Johnson's full discussion with Shole-Mashao, click the media player below: