Description
Leaves the employee in no doubt as to the employer?s views on his/her performance and places the employee fairly on terms ?to make the necessary improvement or face dismissal?. In cases of dismissal on grounds of incompatibility, warnings are inappropriate, because an employee would seldom change his/her nature or be able to do so; similarly in the case of ill health. But it is generally accepted that an employee should be warned if there is a possibility of him/her losing his/her job on grounds of misconduct or incompetence. The object of a warning is to give the employee the opportunity to improve his/her performance or to look for another job in the case of retrenchment. It is common practice for disciplinary codes to provide for a progression of warnings from oral to written, culminating in a final written
warning. The courts do not give much weight to oral warnings. The court will consider the number of warnings given and the seriousness of the offence on each occasion to determine where appropriate whether an employee has been fairly dismissed.