Employers will inevitably collect or already have personal information about their employees on file or stored electronically. With the Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”) now in force, such employee information must be protected in their workplace just as it should be protected by other bodies who possess their personal information.
POPIA, Employees And Employment Contracts Read More »
An employee’s conduct outside of their workplace and ordinary work hours is not subject to the control or authority of their employer. Ordinarily, facing disciplinary proceedings for one’s after-hours actions would not be considered “substantively fair”. Even arrest or criminal activity by an employee does not give an employer the automatic right of dismissal. The purpose of this Act is, among other things, “to create offences which have a bearing on cybercrime; to criminalise the disclosure of data messages which are harmful …” and creates mechanisms and procedures for determining and prosecuting the criminalised activities enumerated therein.
