As BBBEE points out the award can be upto 12 months. There is no formula per se for calculating an award. The objective is twofold; compensate the employee and also to punish the employer. The second part is arguably where the emphasis lies as it is the employers actions that cause damage to the employee. Hence, where the employer has pretty much followed the rules etc but perhaps erred in a decision the award will be far less than where the employer simply says "theres the door, grap your jacket on the way out" As your employee has not been in employ that long, the compensatiuon he is entitled to is far less tahn an employee who has worked for say 15 years.
There are however 2 factors - procedure (whhich you admit is incorrect) and teh subsatnce or reasons. If you had genuine reasons to dismiss then once again the award will be limited only to the procedure.
A quick tour of the process - Conciliation is where the Commisioner will try and assist the 2 parties to come to a settlement. Arbitration is where evidence is given and the Commisioner makes a decision and an award. Presumably your matter is set for Con/Arb which means that it is all done on one day.
You specifically mention that you do not want employee back - the problem here is that the employee can ask for re-instatement which comes with back pay. So taht would be a problem for you. Perhaps the way forward is to - object to the con-arb taking place on one day. In this manner the conciliation will be attempted and only if it fails does it go to arboitration which will be on another day. With a settlement rate of 85%, and if you prepared to pay upto 3 months, you probably will be good to do the payoff and move on. (Of course this is relevant to the salary) You will obviously not start with an offer of 3 months.
If you fail to come to agreement you are no worse off than you are now and can either wait for arbitration OR try BBBEE strategy.
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