An Overview of The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe’s Approach to Unfair Dismissal Cases

This paper outlines and describes the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe’s approach to the resolution of unfair dismissal cases. The paper also critiques the procedural steps and requirements for a party aggrieved by a determination of the Labour Court in order to have an audience in the Supreme Court. Unfair dismissal in this paper is assessed based on two criterion namely substantive and procedural fairness. The paper argues that the Supreme Court’s approaches to both procedural and substantive fairness are rooted in the common law where an employer’s discretion to dismiss for misconduct going to the root of the employment relationship is not lightly interfered with. Such discretion can only be interfered with if it is shown that the employer’s discretion to dismiss only when it is irrational, and outrageous in its defiance of logic or accepted moral standards that no sensible person who applied his mind to the question could have arrived at such a conclusion. The paper argues that the current approach by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe is incompatible with the legislative aims of unfair dismissal laws, particularly Section 12B (4) of the Labour Act and Section 65 of the Constitution. The paper argues that there is need to shift from a unitarist approach to a pluralist approach where both employer and employee needs are considered, and the fairness of a dismissal is not only view through the lens of a reasonable employer but through the lens of an impartial adjudicator. In other words, the paper argues that while the employer has the right to dismiss the fairness of such dismissal is the preserve of the court.