Abstract

Lewis v CCMA & others concerns a constructive dismissal arising from an employer’s mishandling of a medically certified episode of work-related anxiety and depression. This note argues that the judgment makes three contributions to South African labour law. It develops a methodologically coherent tipping-point framework for cumulative intolerability. It establishes that weaponising sick leave procedures against an employee who has made a genuine medical disclosure breaches the implied term of mutual trust and confidence. And it expands the exception to the duty to exhaust internal grievance procedures where systemic administrative bad faith renders the internal process structurally compromised. This note also critiques the remedy employed by the court.