Latest news with #R724
IOL News
25-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Durban paint company appeals Labour Court ruling on unfair maternity leave discrimination
A Durban paint company will ask the labour court for leave to appeal against a finding that it had unfairly discriminated against a pregnant worker by sending her on maternity leave without pay, three months ahead of her actual pregnancy leave starting. Image: File A Durban paint company, who was ordered to pay a former worker more than R700,000 after the Labour Court found that it had unfairly discriminated against the pregnant woman by sending her early on maternity leave without pay, is set on appealing the ruling and will argue that the court has made several erroneous findings against it. Induradec Coatings Pty in Pinetown has been ordered to pay Tiisetso Daisy Moleme, a chemist working for the company, R724,000 in compensation, which is equivalent to 11 months' salary. The paint company has meanwhile filed an application for leave to appeal the ruling. As Moleme's job entailed the development of products and research, she became concerned about the chemicals with which she had to work when she became pregnant. After telling her employer that she was pregnant, she expressed her concern to the human resources department and requested to be moved out of the laboratory. She said she was promised alternative duties in the meantime, but this never happened. Instead, she was told that she was being placed on early maternity leave, without pay. The company explained to Moleme that "this is best for the benefit of both you and your unborn child". The court ruled that Moleme was unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of pregnancy, but it commented that the company did not act out of malice when it placed her on unpaid, early pregnancy leave. The court also found that the company had failed to establish that Moleme's removal from the lab for the duration of her pregnancy had been necessary. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ In its grounds for asking for leave to appeal, the company questioned this and other findings and said the court failed to consider that Moleme was the one who asked to be removed from the laboratory. It questioned how the court could find that Induradec Coatings's conduct was discriminatory under these circumstances, especially as there was no request from Moleme to be placed back in the lab. The paint company said the court also erred in dealing with the aspect of compensation to be paid to Moleme. It awarded more than R700,000 in compensation, under circumstances where she would have had less than three months to work before she went on pregnancy leave. She would then have faced the same situation (after going on normal pregnancy leave) as she would have had to obtain UIF payments instead of her salary, the company reasoned. It questioned how the court could have found that the paint company did not act in bad faith towards Moleme, yet it was ordered to pay her 11 months' salary. This, it said, under circumstances where she only lost out on three months' pay before going on maternity leave. The paint company added that the court had failed to consider the fact that it had taken steps to find out how to deal with the situation. It pointed out in its application that it has checked with two doctors as well as an occupational health and safety practitioner on an alternative mechanism to be used by Moleme so that she could continue her work in the lab. No date has yet been set down for the leave to appeal application.
Zawya
08-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Old Mutual takes $39mln hit on sale of Tanzania, Nigeria businesses
South Africa's financial services conglomerate Old Mutual Plc posted a combined loss of R724 million ($39.23 million) from the sale of its businesses in Tanzania and Nigeria last year, as it restructured its operations outside South Africa to strengthen its growth plan on the continent. Disclosures in its latest audited financial statements for 2024 show that the sale of the Tanzanian business resulted in losses of R78 million ($4.23 million), while the Nigerian unit lost R646 million ($35 million). Consequently, the group's return to shareholders from investments outside South Africa— Old Mutual Africa regions— fell by 23 percent to R819 million ($44.38 million) last year, driven by lower investment returns in East and West Africa and the exit from the Nigerian and Tanzanian markets during the year, the company says. Old Mutual Holdings Plc entered into an agreement in January 2024 to sell its 60 percent shareholding in UAP Insurance Tanzania Ltd to Strategic Ventures Company Ltd. The shares, comprising 137,400 ordinary shares and 100 percent of the preference shares, were initially owned by UAP Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of Old Mutual Holdings Plc. Old Mutual Holdings Ltd took effective control of UAP Holdings Ltd in 2015 by acquiring 37.33 percent of the total issued ordinary shares in UAP Holdings Ltd from AfricInvest Fund II Ltd, AfricInvest Financial Sector Fund, Aureos Africa Fund Llc and Swedfund International Aktiebolag. Old Mutual Holdings, together with Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Ltd, owned 60.66 percent of the issued ordinary shares of UAP Holdings. UAP Insurance Tanzania was a short-term insurance business acquired in 2015 as part of the group's East African growth plan. According to the parent company, the review of its East and West African operations has allowed it to focus on markets where it believes it can achieve strong growth. Returns on investmentIn East Africa, for instance, shareholder investment returns declined by 65 percent to R77 million ($4.17 million), largely due to the impact of currency movements on foreign-denominated assets and the disposal of the Tanzanian business. Shareholder assets in the East Africa region consist largely of investments in property and interest-bearing assets, with the Kenyan portfolio being the largest. In Kenya, property assets returned 7.1 percent to investors, outperforming inflation for the year due to resilient occupancy rates, while the bond portfolio returned 18.4 percent, underperforming the benchmark. In West Africa, Old Mutual's investment returns dropped by 67 percent to R22 million ($1.19 million) for the year due to the disposal of the Nigerian business in June 2024 and the Ghanaian cedi depreciation of 17 percent against the South African rand. In Ghana, bonds comprise the bulk of shareholder-invested assets and returned significantly lower returns in 2024 compared to the prior year. In addition, investment property returns were also lower than in 2023. Last year, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed group said it would abandon its investments in government bonds as part of a strategic decision to protect its African businesses from sovereign risks and shore up its clients' investment returns. The group says investment in government securities is likely to trigger a sovereign crisis that will reduce its customers' investment returns and fuel concerns over value-for-money in some portfolios.'We are reducing our exposure in long-dated government papers with elevated sovereign risk, pausing the development of guaranteed products and responsibly and systematically reducing government bond exposure in our African markets,' the group says. In East Africa, the group's Life APE sales decreased by 12 percent to R440 million ($23.84 million) due to lower adviser productivity and fewer corporate schemes onboarded in Kenya, coupled with a lower contribution from the corporate business in Uganda following the enforcement of the cash and carry regulations. The group says that new business value and new business margin in East Africa were also lower than in the prior year due to changes in assumptions to better anticipate the level and allocation of expenses in the business. Life APE is a standardised measure of the volume of new life insurance business written by the businesses in the life and savings line of businessOld Mutual's gross written premiums in East Africa increased by one percent to R3,887 million ($210.63 million) in 2024 following good renewals in both the medical and general insurance businesses in Kenya, largely offset by the non-repeat of a large sale which occurred in the prior year in Uganda. The net underwriting margin improved by 160 basis points to negative 1.6 percent due to lower expenses, which were partially offset by an adverse claims experience in the medical book across the region. Old Mutual is a pan-African financial services group that offers a broad spectrum of financial solutions to retail and corporate customers across key market segments in 12 countries, including Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
