Labour consultant case scenario
Thus, to sketch a scenario; a woman whose husband has been retrenched, now unemployed and struggling to pay the bills, while drinking excessively under the dire circumstances, finds her marriage tenuous and can simply not divorce that area of her life and leave it neatly packaged on her doorstep, runs into problems at work.
While she needs to maintain a professional front and pay critical attention to the sole source of the family income, she brings her troubles to work. They may well manifest in her behaviour being inappropriate toward a client, or even acting in a subordinate manner to management. She may become rude to clients and even demonstrate inaccuracies in her work. Given some care, comfort and attention by another member of staff, may feed a need that she is requiring, and which is lacking at home. She feels vulnerable and becomes responsive, whereby the friendship crosses the boundaries and develops into a clandestine relationship. With the pyramid of problems piling up, she begins to inadvertently neglect her job. Her mind is now split between the issues that she has at home and being caught out in her new-found relationship.
The higher the pyramid rises, the greater the impact on her work. She finds herself called in by senior management who warn her that she could easily be replaced. She sees this as a threat and decides to take this further and intends approaching the CCMA (acronym for Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration).
However, having a staff member labour consultant onsite whose role is to fulfil the same obligations of the CCMA, to resolve disputes through conciliation (finding a compromise between the two parties) or arbitration (acting as the objective third party to resolve the dispute) which is aimed at promoting fair practices in the work environment, she can approach him.
Study labour law