Former RCL Foods employee wins R3.1m payout after 13 years of legal struggle.
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The Labour Court in Cape Town has ruled that a former employee may proceed with the execution of a R3.19 million compensation award against RCL Foods Consumer, despite the company’s attempt to challenge the decision at the Labour Appeal Court.
Acting judge Coen De Kock ruled in favour of former maintenance fitter Etienne Jordaan, finding that exceptional circumstances justified allowing the enforcement of the award while the employer’s appeal process is still pending.
The court said the dispute, which has stretched over 13 years, left Jordaan financially devastated and that further delays could effectively deprive him of the benefit of his court victory.
Jordaan was employed as a maintenance fitter at a processing plant operated by the company—then known as Rainbow Farms—in Worcester. He was dismissed in January 2013 after being accused of dishonesty related to alleged clocking offences.
Later that year, a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration commissioner ruled that the dismissal was unfair and ordered that Jordaan be reinstated with back pay amounting to over R120,000, calculated from his monthly salary of about R20,000.
However, the company did not reinstate him immediately. Instead, it launched a review application in court and obtained a stay of execution, preventing the order from being enforced.
The Labour Court eventually dismissed that review in 2018, but the dispute did not end there. The company pursued further legal processes, including a declaratory application and multiple arbitration proceedings concerning how Jordaan’s back pay should be calculated.
After years of litigation, Jordaan was finally reinstated in April 2020—seven years after the original CCMA ruling. The parties then agreed to refer the calculation of the total back-pay owed for the period between 2013 and 2020 to private arbitration.
Arbitration proceedings ultimately concluded with an award in February 2025 ordering RCL Foods Consumer to pay Jordaan over R3.1 million, plus interest and costs.
The employer challenged that award through another review application in the Labour Court. But in September 2025, the court dismissed the review, and in February 2026 it also refused the company leave to appeal.
The company then filed a petition for leave to appeal to the Labour Appeal Court, which automatically suspended the judgment. Jordaan responded by applying to have the judgment enforced despite the pending appeal.
Judge De Kock held that Jordaan satisfied the strict requirements under Section 18 of the Superior Courts Act, which allows a court to order the enforcement of a judgment during an appeal in exceptional circumstances.
The judge said the prolonged litigation and the company’s repeated challenges—none of which had succeeded—created a situation that was “truly exceptional”.
According to the court, the cumulative effect of the employer’s conduct meant a relatively straightforward labour dispute had evolved into a lengthy legal saga that left Jordaan facing severe financial hardship.
The judgment noted that Jordaan had spent about R2.5 million on legal costs, exhausted his pension fund, sold his car and seen his wife surrender an insurance policy during the protracted litigation.
The court found that further delays could leave him financially ruined before the appeal process concluded.
One issue raised by the company was that Jordaan now lives in Ireland, raising concerns that the company might struggle to recover the money if the appeal later succeeded.
To address this, the court ordered Jordaan and his wife not to sell or further mortgage their jointly owned property in Worcester while the appeal process continues.
The judge said this undertaking would provide security for the employer while allowing Jordaan to enforce the award.
The court ordered that the previous judgment dismissing the company’s review be put into operation immediately, allowing Jordaan to execute the award even while the petition to appeal is pending.
RCL Foods Consumer (Pty) Ltd was also ordered to pay the costs of the application.
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