Is it fair to dismiss an employee for joining a strike if he did not clock out?

Tzaneng Treated Timbers vs NBCWPS
Case number: JA 77/19
Citation: [2022] ZALCJHB 88 (6 April 2022)

A group of employees clocked in for work in the morning. They then left the workplace to join a strike without clocking out.

The employees were dismissed for having defrauded the employer by misrepresenting that they were at work, when in fact they were not.

The Labour Appeal Court considered whether the employees had the INTENTION to mislead the employer and whether they were in fact guilty of a lesser misconduct of having merely breached the clocking rule of not clocking out.

The Labour Appeal Court also considered whether the issue of the dismissal was adequately dealt with in the light of any such lesser misconduct