The Labour Court rejected Ulrike Cronje’s appeal against Noonan Services Group Limited, affirming the decision that her penalisation complaint was not well founded. The determination was published in January 2019.
Cronje said Noonan penalised her after she objected on health grounds to returning to the Pfizer client site, where she had worked before. Noonan said her temporary assignment at the BioMarin site was no longer available and that it offered her other roles, including work at Pfizer.
The Court found that Cronje’s medically certified absence was not a protected act under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, but that her solicitor’s letter raising health concerns about the proposed assignment was protected. The requirement that she work at Pfizer was imposed before that letter, so the Court found no causal link between the letter and the assignment. It also found that Noonan stopped paying her before she had committed a protected act. The continuing disagreement about her assignment did not establish penalisation because of the protected act.