I have written before about the labour laws in South Africa which I think are one of the many reasons that most big international companies don’t want to become involved in doing business in South Africa and the experiences of Walmart are certainly not going to impress any other major foreign investors.

The one thing that trigger happy employees forget, when rushing off to labour consultants and people who just ultimately want a share of any compensation that they may or may not get, is that it has a major impact on their future. A CV with gaps in it does not get you a job anywhere because it says you are hiding something and a CV that details a company that you worked for leads to that firm being called about how you work. I had reason the other day to phone a company, to ask for a reference on somebody and was told, “I really don’t want to discuss her at all, the last time I saw her was at the CCMA …”. As an employer, that does not just set off alarm bells, but it is pretty much the funeral of that particular person’s prospects of working with you.

In my own experience, good and competent employees have no trouble in moving from one firm to another, and while there are rare exceptions, and I am personally not interested in them, or hearing them as is the case with most prospective employers, the kind of people that generally go to the CCMA are either very difficult or very poor employees and once I hear that somebody has been involved in disputes with their previous employer, I am simply not interested in hiring them at all.  I certainly didn't this time either.