Not adhering to work rules can have dire consequences, as a hospital clerk discovered after she took a lost cellphone home and lost her job.
A hospital clerk’s decision to take a lost cellphone home rather than leaving it in safekeeping at the hospital came at a high price after she was fired.
Sandra Opperman turned to the Cape Town Labour Court in a bid to have her dismissal overturned. But the court turned down her application, as the judge found she never explained why she took the phone in the first place.
Opperman was employed at the George Hospital in the Western Cape as an administrative clerk for 28 years before she was fired, and she had an unblemished employment record.
It was alleged that in March 2019, while she was performing her duties as an administrative clerk, a cellphone was placed by a worker of a delivery company in front of her in the admissions area.
