CWAO IN THE NEWS
DisChem terminates employee who had cancer because she can no longer lift heavy items
13/08/2024
Publication: CWAO
Author: CWAO Press Office
The Casual Workers' Advice Office condemns the pharmacy giant, DisChem, for dismissing a female worker after she was fitted with a stoma bag following cancer surgery and could no longer lift heavy items.
This pharmacy giant has 319 stores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, 466 in-store clinics, and total assets amounting to R10.7billion. DisChem is nearly 50 years old and claims to be South Africa's first choice in pharmacies; yet it has refused to find a permanent light-duty job for its female cancer survivor employee, even after years of loyal service from her.
Refilwe Matinketsa started working at DisChem on 1 March 2019 and worked as a picker at the distribution centre until 2024 when she was dismissed by DisChem for medical incapacity.
She was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2022, underwent surgery and was fitted with a stoma bag. Ms Matinketsa returned to work at DisChem in November 2023. She was expected to continue lifting boxes and repeatedly bend over and stretch - which she could not do because of the stoma bag. A medical specialist advised DisChem that Ms Matinketsa could only do light duties.
DisChem's response to this was to put her in a temporary position as a checker with only four hours of work in the evening. By December 2023 she was given the position of picker until March 2024 when DisChem declared the role redundant and terminated Ms Matinketsa on grounds of medical incapacity.
This giant, multi-billion rand company with hundreds of stores and clinics all over South Africa horrifically claimed that it had not one alternative light-duty or desk job available anywhere for Ms Matinketsa. Ms Matinketsa offered to work in three other positions - as box maker, scanner or packer but DisChem had also made all of these positions "redundant". DisChem did not even make a single attempt to offer Ms Matinketsa retraining in office work or offer her a single job in any of its stores, perhaps dusting the shelves or arranging lipsticks or other tiny items.
Ms Matinketsa's case is not the only such case in South Africa. Any manual worker involved in heavy lifting can expect to be summarily dismissed if they are diagnosed with cancer, or tear their shoulder or hip muscles while lifting at work, even if they have dedicated years of service to the company and still have decades left before retirement.
These corporate giants must be exposed and made to change their ways. The CWAO demands that these corporate giants, which have the resources to treat gravely ill workers like decent human beings, come up with a policy whereby they will transfer sickly and disabled workers to light duties. Simply terminating their injured and disabled workers is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The CWAO took up a case of unfair dismissal at the CCMA. We condemn the part-time commissioner (a former HR manager), who mindlessly ruled for DisChem because it had no "alternative positions in a shrinking workforce". It is not clear from the award what objective evidence DisChem provided to show that it is losing so much money that it has had to shrink its workforce to the extent that it cannot accommodate one woman worker with a stoma bag. Part-time commissioners have other work outside the CCMA and are often conflicted about ruling in favour of workers. This is why the CWAO has demanded that all commissioners must be full-time and work only at the CCMA.
The CWAO demands that DisChem reinstate Refilwe Matinketsa in a genuine light-duty job without further delay.
For interviews, please contact Refilwe on 078 797 8579 (interviews in English, Sepedi) and CWAO Legal Officer Joshua Hlungwani on 072 550 3373 (interviews in English,isiZulu, Setswana, Sesotho and Tsonga).