Dishonesty or Just a Little White Lie?

I wasn’t dishonest! I just omitted to add the detail on the system… Or I did capture all the detail just not in the correct field provided…Or I just wrote the customer’s name on the Offer to Purchase… Or I just helped the customer by inflating the price or changing the ODO meter reading for guarantee or warranty purposes… It is all about customer satisfaction! A little white lie. Or is it?

What would your response be if I tell you that a lie in its simplest form, the moment it left your mouth, equates to verbal deception? Think about it, how many times did you tell a ‘white lie’ in a sticky situation. I actually came across another term, ‘black lies’ and even an article about the ‘four colors of lies’. A white lie, so they say, is deception out of affiliative motives, that is the need to get along with others, lying in order to deepen a relationship. In contrast, a black lie, so they say, is deception in order to gain or exploit out of self-interest. There are numerous articles and Research Documents on the subject of lying, white; grey; black or red, the common denominators are ‘intention’ and ‘deception’.

Dishonesty

The Labour Appeal Court did not mince their words in Nedcor Bank Ltd v Frank & Others (2002) 7 BLLR 600 (LAC) stating, in no uncertain terms, that “[D]ishonesty entails a lack of integrity or straightforwardness and in particular, a willingness to steal, cheat, lie or act fraudulently…and it is normally used to describe an act where there has been some intent to deceive or cheat.” (Own Emphasis)

The LAC is clear that acts such as theft, fraud, lying i.e. about the reasons for absence, falsification of documents, submitting false/manipulated documentation and unethical behaviour equates to dishonesty. In the employer-employee relationship, these acts or misconduct can be to the detriment of your employer or even clients and/or stakeholders.

The Trust Relationship

In a previous article MISA stressed the duty of good faith in any Employer-Employee relationship. Essential to the employment relationship, is that an employee acts in the best interests of the employer, in an honest manner and with integrity. Abandonment of the duty of good faith, impacts the trust relationship between an employer and employee, even to the extent that the trust might have been destroyed.

Dishonesty has a direct impact on the trust relationship between an employer and an employee. A truth that was reiterated by the Labour Court in Standard Bank SA Limited v CCMA & Others (1998) 6 BLLR 622 (LC) reconfirming that trust “… was one of the fundamentals of the employment relationship that the employer should be able to place trust in the employee. A breach of this trust in the form of conduct involving dishonesty is one that goes to the heart of the employment relationship and is destructive of it.” (Own Emphasis)

Dishonesty and Dismissal

The Code of Good Practise: Dismissal, requires a number of factors to be considered before contemplating dismissing an employee for misconduct such as dishonesty. Some of these requirements include the consideration of factors such as the employee’s length of service and previous disciplinary record; the misconduct must be serious and of such gravity that it makes a continued employment relationship intolerable; and that an employee should only be dismissed for a violation if he/she has been found guilty of gross misconduct such as:

• wilful damage to the property of the employer;
• wilful endangering of the safety of others;
• physical assault on the employer, a fellow employee or a client;
• gross insubordination;
• gross dishonesty.

Emphasis is placed on the recommended sanction of dismissal for gross dishonesty. The inference drawn is that not all acts of dishonesty justify a dismissal or renders the employment relationship intolerable.

As far back as 1992 the Labour Appeal Court took a very strong resolute on the effect of dishonesty by an employee on the employment relationship in Anglo American Farms t/a Boschendal Restaurant v Komjwayo (1992) 13 ILJ 573 (LAC) – “This trust which the employer places in the employee is basic to and forms the substratum of the relationship between them. A breach of this duty goes to the root of the contract of employment and of the relationship between employer and employee”. (Own Emphasis)

Conclusion

The intentional omission of information or the intentional manipulation of information is dishonest! Dishonesty is misconduct that have the potential to destroy the trust between the employer and employee. Once the dishonesty is ‘gross’, the trust is shattered and dismissal will follow.

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