Foschini Employees v Foschini Group, South Africa

Talk to any entrepreneur,small or large businesses and they will quickly tell you finding the right employee i.e. competent, loyal etc. remains one of their biggest challenges. It would appear, therefore, that once a company is able to retain such employees, the natural thing to do is to make them happy by, at the very least, paying them the agreed upon wages for services rendered.

Not so with the Foschini Group. The Foschini Group and its eight subsidiaries in South Africa just admitted, per the discovery of the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (SACCAWU), that it underpaid many of its workers for years by using the wrong statutory code, pursuant to law, for payment. The SACCAWU now demands rectification of Foschini’s “mistakes” and is considering further investigations into Foschini’s compliance with the country's employment and labor laws, particularly as to wages.