Mugg & Bean waitress wins unfair-dismissal case after alleged ‘go back to India’ remark
A Labour Court upheld a finding that a Mugg & Bean waitress’s dismissal was substantively and procedurally unfair but reduced her leave-pay award and ordered the outstanding remuneration to be recalculated.
Marie Tshiala, a waitress at Mugg & Bean in Cape Town, has won an unfair-dismissal case after alleging her employer accused her of making a racist remark. The dispute arose in June 2024 when Tshiala's shifts were reduced from six to three per week, leading her to file a claim with the CCMA for outstanding remuneration. Her employer, Premilla Anvary, accused Tshiala of lying in the claim and called her to her office, where Anvary allegedly told her to “go back to India.”
Tshiala subsequently filed an unfair dismissal dispute with the CCMA. The Labour Court found that Tshiala's dismissal was both substantively and procedurally unfair, as there was no evidence presented during the arbitration proceedings to support the employer's reasons for dismissal. The court also ruled that the dismissal was procedurally unfair, as Tshiala was not subjected to any disciplinary process before her firing.
The employer was ordered to pay Tshiala three months' compensation of R15,120, with interest starting from August 7, 2024. The court also corrected the leave-pay and outstanding-remuneration awards, reducing the leave-pay to R1,365 and recalculating the outstanding remuneration for shifts worked from February 2024 to June 2024.
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