Addington staffer wins battle for reinstatement

Durban's Addington Hospital. Picture: Puri Devjee

Durban's Addington Hospital. Picture: Puri Devjee

Published May 3, 2016

Share

Durban - The Durban Labour Court has called for the provincial Department of Health to reinstate an employee, and member of Addington Hospital’s Bid Evaluation Committee, it unfairly fired.

Judge Connie Prinsloo on Friday dismissed the department’s application to review and set aside the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council’s decision.

The council found that Adriaan Harmse’s dismissal was “substantively unfair” and ordered the department to reinstate him.

However, the department accused the arbitrator of “gross misconduct” and sought help from the court to review the council’s decision.

In dismissing the application, the judge found the department’s grounds for review were not supported by evidence.

The department had also accused the arbitrator of flawed reasoning and that his decision was not connected to the evidence led and was irrational.

“Apart from this sweeping and bold statement, the applicant (the department) did not make any averments to substantiate or explain in what respect the arbitrator’s reasoning is flawed and the decision disconnected from the evidence,” read Prinsloo’s judgment.

She also said she could not find that the arbitrator ignored material facts. “The onus was on the applicant to prove that Harmse’s dismissal was fair and it failed to do so.”

Harmse was employed from July 1998, and at the time he was fired, he was employed as an asset manager and was a member of the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) at Addington Hospital and sometimes acted as committee chairman.

This committee would evaluate and verify tenders and quotations received for services to be rendered or goods to be purchased and make a recommendation to the Bid Adjudication Committee - the final decision maker.

According to the judgment, the hospital needed to procure training equipment and the doctor in charge of the training programme compiled a list of the items he required.

This doctor then approached Survival Technologies and requested the required equipment.

The company had provided a quotation and told the doctor it was the sole supplier of the goods required. All of this information and documents were relayed to the finance section of the supply chain management directorate for approval.

The BEC met in February 2011 and was chaired by Harmse. The committee recommended the purchase of these items on the basis that this company was the sole supplier.

The department argued that although it appeared Survival Technologies was the sole supplier, the supply chain management should have tried to source the items from other suppliers.

It also said it was the BEC’s duty to ensure this was done and that there were no shortcomings.

The department identified a number of irregularities in the procurement of this equipment from this company and argued this should have been picked up by the BEC, but was not.

It also argued the BEC sent its recommendation to the Bid Adjudicating Committee which approved the recommendation and the equipment was purchased.

Believing that proper procedure was not followed, the department then charged the doctor and all the members of the two committees with misconduct.

The doctor resigned following a settlement and all the committee members were given final written warnings, except for Harmse who was fired.

The department’s reasoning was that everyone, except for Harmse, had pleaded guilty.

Harmse was fired in June 2013 and he subsequently referred an unfair dismissal dispute with the council.

Prinsloo had agreed with the arbitrator’s findings that the department had acted inconsistently when it dismissed Harmse and not the others.

The Daily News had sent its questions to the department on Monday, which included whether the department would appeal the judgment. However, the department had not responded at the time of publication.

[email protected]

Daily News

* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.

Related Topics: