Judge Ellem Francis stayed the Labour Court proceedings in Johannesburg on Monday and referred the dispute to arbitration. Each party will pay its own costs.
Bullard was dismissed last year after he wrote a column entitled Uncolonised Africa wouldn't know what it was missing.
The Labour Relations Act states that if there is a dispute about the fairness of the dismissal, the dismissed employee may refer the dispute within 30 days to a bargaining council.
According to the Act, the Labour Court does not have jurisdiction to adjudicate an unresolved dispute if the act requires the dispute to be resolved through arbitration.
Parties within the scope of the industry refer labour disputes such as dismissals and unfair labour practices to the Statutory Council of the Printing, Newspaper and Packaging Industry for resolution, instead of the state-established Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration.
In Bullard's case, he had instructed his lawyers to remove the dispute from the council's roll last year and had given them the go-ahead to take up the matter in the Labour Court.
Bullard's attorney, Ari Soldatos, said he only knew of the apology when Sunday Times lawyers notified him last Friday.
“This has not been specifically pleaded and is unfair to the applicant,” he said.
If the article had been brought to his attention earlier, he would have advised Bullard not to come to the Labour Court.
He asked the court to refer the matter back to the council for arbitration.
Sunday Times lawyer Puke Maserumule argued, however, the court was not obliged to do so.
When initially the matter had been referred to the council, it had been set down for arbitration, he said.
Bullard's lawyers had then sent a letter to the council informing it that Bullard wanted to take the matter to the Labour Court, upon which it was removed from the council's roll.
“This is not a case where the applicant mistakenly goes to the Labour Court.
"The applicant should go to the council and apply for condonation.”
Bullard's apology on April 18 last year meant he had accepted that the opinion he expressed should never have been expressed, Maserumule said.
Soldatos contended after the hearing that the issue to be determined by the council was merely whether Bullard was an employee.
“I need to show the council that Bullard was an employee,” he argued.
Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said he was satisfied with the outcome, but would have been happy if the case had been thrown out.
Bullard's own lawyers had conceded that the matter was not a Labour Court issue, Makhanya said.
Source: Business Day
Published courtesy of
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