A maintenance fitter who spent more than a decade fighting his employer in court has won the right to enforce a multimillion-rand award against food giant Rainbow Chicken, after the Labour Court ruled that further delays would cause him severe financial harm.
The dispute, which grew from a simple employment case involving a worker earning about R20,000 per month into a lengthy legal battle resulting in a multimillion-rand award, ended for Etienne Jordaan on Friday when the Cape Town Labour Court granted him an award of almost R3.2m plus interest and costs.
Acting judge Coen de Kock ordered that former employee Jordaan may execute on the amount previously awarded to him, despite Rainbow Chicken’ ongoing efforts to appeal the decision.
The ruling allows Jordaan to move ahead with collecting the money while the company’s petition to the Labour Appeal Court is still pending.
Jordaan worked as a maintenance fitter at a processing plant in Worcester operated by the company when it was still known as Rainbow Farms. He was dismissed on January 7 2013 after being accused of dishonesty linked to alleged clocking offences.
However, a commissioner from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruled on June 17 2013 that the dismissal was unfair. The commissioner ordered that Jordaan be reinstated with backpay, calculated at his monthly salary of R20,012.54. At the time this totalled R120,075.24.
However, when Jordaan reported for duty on July 8 2013 in line with his court-ordered reinstatement, he was sent home instead. The company launched a review application in the Labour Court, preventing enforcement of the reinstatement order.
The legal fight dragged on for years.
In December 2018, judge Andre Steenkamp dismissed the company’s review application. Though the company initially sought leave to appeal, it later abandoned that attempt.
Instead, it launched a separate application seeking to set off about R2.96m that Jordaan had earned from other jobs during the period he had not been reinstated.
Eventually, in April 2020 ― more than seven years after the original order ― Jordaan was reinstated following an agreement between the parties.
At the same time, they agreed to refer the calculation of the outstanding backpay from January 2013 to March 2020 to private arbitration. The arbitration had to determine, among other things: whether income Jordaan earned elsewhere should be deducted; whether the legal in duplum rule applied; whether backpay included only basic salary or also overtime, night-shift and standby allowances.
While the arbitration process continued, Jordaan was suspended on August 12 2023. His second dismissal followed on December 18 2023, this time for alleged falsification of T-cards relating to safety valve maintenance work during 2023.
Jordaan did not challenge the second dismissal and later moved to Ireland, where he now lives.
Two arbitration awards were initially issued in Jordaan’s favour in March and May 2024 by advocate Glen Watt-Pringle.
De Kock ruled that Jordaan had met the strict legal test required to override the normal rule that judgments cannot be enforced while appeals are pending, finding that “exceptional circumstances” existed.
— Acting judge Coen de Kock
The company reviewed those awards in court, and by agreement, they were set aside and the matter was reheard before another arbitrator, Michael Buirski.
On February 27 2025, Buirski ruled that the company must pay Jordaan R3,190,807.73, plus interest and costs.
The award included amounts for overtime, night-shift and standby allowances during the seven-year period in which Jordaan should have been working after his unfair dismissal.
Acting judge Craig Bosch in the Labour Court dismissed the company’s attempt to review and set aside the arbitration award in September 2025.
Rainbow Chicken was refused leave to appeal in February 2026 and filed a petition to the Labour Appeal Court, which automatically suspended the enforcement of the judgment under the law.
Jordaan then brought a fresh application asking the court to allow enforcement of the award despite the pending appeal process. Jordaan told the court that the 13-year dispute had taken a severe toll on his finances.
According to the judgment, Jordaan had spent about R2.5m on legal costs, exhausted his pension fund, sold his vehicle and used up his wife’s insurance policy.
His home in Worcester, jointly owned with his wife, still carries a mortgage of about R460,000.
De Kock ruled that Jordaan had met the strict legal test required to override the normal rule that judgments cannot be enforced while appeals are pending, finding that “exceptional circumstances” existed.
These included the 13-year litigation history, repeated unsuccessful legal challenges by the company, the financial strain placed on Jordaan and the risk that further delays could cause irreparable harm.
Because Jordaan now lives abroad, the company argued it could struggle to recover the money if it ultimately won its appeal.
To address that concern, the court ordered Jordaan and his wife not to sell or further mortgage their Worcester property while the appeal process continues. The undertaking was incorporated into the court order.
De Kock said the earlier judgment in Jordaan’s favour must be put into operation immediately, that his property restriction remains in place pending any appeal, and that Rainbow Chicken must pay the legal costs of the application.
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