Resignation and withdrawal of resignation

[markanthony]

Good day all,
I have a question that I do hope someone with labour law experience can answer.
I am currently employed at a large company. In July of this year I was offered a position at another company, to start on 5th september, 2012. I tendered my resignation via email with my current company on 1st August, 2012, to finish on 30th August, 2012. So far so good.
Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances, I was subsequently no longer able to accept the new position, so I withdrew my resignation on 20th August, 2012 again via email.
I had a grievance hearing 13th September, 2012, wherein I was informed by my superior that my withdrawal of resignation was in fact NOT accepted but that my superior was giving me until end November to "get my attitude adjusted" as they have a new person starting in my position at the beginning of December.
My questions are as follows:
1: If my withdrawal of resignation was NOT accepted, should I not have finished at the end of August and been notified of this?
2: What recourse do I have since I have basically carried on as if I had NEVER even resigned to begin with?

Thanking you,
Mark

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

I think you have a great argument for a tacit acceptance of the revoking of the resignation.
Your employment is a continuation of the previous contract and not a new one, hence no probation issue.

[markanthony]

I think you have a great argument for a tacit acceptance of the revoking of the resignation.
Your employment is a continuation of the previous contract and not a new one, hence no probation issue.

Good day Mr Sterne,
Thank you for your reply.
I understand you disclaimer at the bottom of your post, however I would like to ask if you have any objection to me expanding a bit on my issue as there are additional factors at play that would lead me to believe that I MIGHT have a case for unfair labour practice (this term was used when i spoke to the labour department).

Thanking you for your time and consideration,
Mark.

[Dave A]

The devil might well be in the detail. If the case is complicated, I suggest you consider making use of Anthony's professional services. He is a labour lawyer and as someone who has used his services, I can also say his rates are reasonable.

[markanthony]

The devil might well be in the detail. If the case is complicated, I suggest you consider making use of Anthony's professional services. He is a labour lawyer and as someone who has used his services, I can also say his rates are reasonable.

Good day Mr DaveA,
Apologies for the late reply. Thank you for your reply. It's not that case is complicated, just that there other other factors that come into play regarding this company but I am not sure whether they are relevant to my specific question or whether I can add them to my existing question. I just want basically lay all the points out and see what, if any, case/recourse I have against the company in terms of my rights as an employee.
As regards using Mr Sterne's services, I would love to but financial constraints dictate otherwise, hence my using the forum.
Therefore, would there be any problem with me expanding on my issue and laying out all the points in the forum? I do not want to do anything to disrupt the way the forum functions.

Thanking you for your time and assistance.
Mark

[Dave A]

would there be any problem with me expanding on my issue and laying out all the points in the forum?

No problem at all

(Sorry - my turn to be late to reply )

[markanthony]

No problem at all

(Sorry - my turn to be late to reply )

Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply.
Ok, I will make it as short and to the point as possible so here goes:

1: First, it is important to note that I am the WHOLE IT department at my work, in other words it is ONLY me to do the IT work for the head office and all stores.
2: In November 2011, I took 5 days leave. On the Wednesday and Thursday during that leave I was called in to sort out a server issue. What are my rights regarding this?
3: Considering point 1 above, if I absolutely CANNOT take leave must my company pay me out for my leave? I know the BCEA states that leave can only be paid out on termination of employment but given that it is difficult if not impossible to take any decent leave, can the company not make an exception?
4: Also in November 2011, because of our mail server crashing (after numerous warnings by myself to replace it), I had to work 3 weekends in a row from 7am to 9pm Saturday and Sunday in order to get a new server up and running. There was no way I could have done this in the weekdays as obviously there were people working, so after hours and the weekends were the only time. My company states that they do not pay overtime, is this fair and legal or do I have recourse?
5: Regarding my resignation issue above, I had a meeting yesterday and was told that I am on a month to month basis and that I had agreed to this verbally at our last meeting and my old contract was now void. Is this legal as I feel that a contract should be in writing?

Sorry for the multitude of questions but they all tie in to what I am going to decide to do at the end of this month (November) as the company has told me I can carry on on a month to month basis as a "consultant". Please feel free to aks any questions necessary for clarification of any point.

Thanking you for your time and assistance in this regard,
Mark de Wet.

[adrianh]

They treat you like this and they still trust you with their servers....they must be very very stupid people!

If I were you I would make a full set of off-site backups and prophesize (to myself) to imminent failure of the hardware infrastructure due to the (purely accidental) connection of the 220V wall socket (where the vacuum cleaner gets plugged into) to every orifice of every server.