I had an employee working for me for a number of years last year who came to late every day. Around the end of July he came an hour late again and I said to him that I cannot carry on this way ...... this being after many arguments that we had had. He actually was a good worker. He then walked out on me. I did not fire him. Over a month later he went to the ccma whereby I attended the conciliation hearing. It was found that he was not fired and I said I would take him back on condition that he arrived on time every day. He came back to work (on time) whereby I sat him down and said that he needed to sign a letter of appointment - he promplty got up and walked out again and went back to the ccma. Long story short - he never pitched up for the next case arbitration meeting whereby the case was dismissed. He then applied to have the matter rescinded which they granted and sent me a letter to inform me to appear before aribitration. I was unable to attend as I was in Zimbabwe. I advised them via e mail and have plenty of other documentation sent to them over the last year which they have never responded to. The then went ahead with the arbitration whereby the awarded it to him after hearing his bullshit stories. They have subsequently told me that I have to pay him R35000.00 by the 14 June - this being his weekly pay of R900 x 9 months that he was out of work for. !!

My question to some kind labour lawyer or someone in the know is - Is this possible ? How is it possible that after 10 months that this can happen ? What happened to the 30 day period that you had to go to the ccma ? What do I do now ? And what happens if I just ignore this ?