In this case, the employee was a sales representative in a business that produced and sold a range of meat products. The employee was dismissed after she was found guilty of a charge of dishonesty, in that she failed to inform her employer that she operated a business of her own that marketed dried meat products.
The employee, however, had failed to inform the employer of her side business, which, according to the CCMA Commissioner, was dishonest and unacceptable, and had the effect that the employee was unable to give her full attention to her duties. Essentially, the Labour Court’s approach was that unless employees informed their employers that they are moonlighting to the extent that there is some competition with their employers’ business, no dismissible misconduct had occurred. In other words, an employee had no duty to inform the employer about a potential conflict of interest, said Webber Wentzel.