Manpower Training Act, 1981 (Act No. 56 of 1981)Chapter 6 : General Provisions48. Prohibition of victimization |
| 1) | No employer shall dismiss any person employed by him or reduce the rate of his remuneration or otherwise alter his conditions of service to conditions less favourable to him or alter to his disadvantage his position relatively to other persons employed by that employer, because that employer suspects or believes, whether or not the suspicion or belief is justified or correct, that- |
| a) | that person has given to the Minister, the board, a training board, a training adviser, an officer, an authorized person or a training committee information which he is by or in terms of this Act required to give, or which relates to his conditions of service or those of other persons employed by his employer, or has complied with any lawful requirement of the board, a training board, a training adviser, an authorised person or a training committee, or has given evidence before a court of law or the industrial court; |
| b) | that person has refused or omitted to perform any act the performance of which an employer is by section 42 prohibited from requiring or permitting; |
| c) | that person is or has been a member of any trade union or any other organisation of employees the object of which is or was to protect or further the interests of employees in their relations with their employers, or takes or has taken part outside ordinary working hours or, with the consent of the employer, during working hours in the forming of or lawful activities of any such trade union or organisation. |
| 2) | The court convicting an employer of a contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) may, in addition to any sentence which it may impose - |
| a) | where the reduction of the rate of remuneration or the alteration of the conditions of service or the position of an employee of that employer formed the subject of the charge on which the employer was convicted, order the employer to restore, subject to such conditions as the court may impose, the rate of remuneration, conditions of service or position of the employee to that existing prior to the reduction or alteration, with effect from the date on which the reduction or alteration was made; |
| b) | where the dismissal of an employee of that employer formed the subject of the charge on which the employer was convicted, order the employer to pay to the employee an amount estimated by the court to be equal to three months’ remuneration calculated at the rate according to which the employee was being remunerated at the time of his dismissal. |
| 3) | Any order given under subsection (2)(b) shall have the effect of, and may be executed as if it were, a civil judgment in favour of the employee concerned. |