Referee takes legal action against SA
Gareth Lloyd-Jones, a member of the Western Province Referees’ Society, is taking legal action against SA Referees after his omission from South Africa’s Provincial Panel of referees which was recently announced.
The Provincial Panel is the second tier of merit-selected referees after the National Panel of 11 referees which includes four referees who are on the International Rugby Board’s merit-selected panel of referees.
On Wednesday, 18 November 2009, Bertie Grobbelaar of Van Velden-Duffey Inc., a firm of attorneys based in Rustenburg North West Province, issued a press release on behalf of Lloyd-Jones in which exception is taken to the dropping of Lloyd-Jones from the Provincial Panel and the manner in which it was done.
The press release goes on to say: “The way Lloyd-Jones has been handled by the National Referees Association as well as SA Rugby is a disgrace and a bad reflection on the professional administration of the sport.
“Lloyd-Jones is not prepared to simply leave and accept this conduct of the SA Referees Association and SA Rugby. Writer [Grobbelaar] has instructions to take legal steps to protect the interests of Lloyd-Jones. Attached hereto find a letter addressed to the SA Referees Association as well as SA Rugby to which no response has to date been received.
“We will continue with appropriate legal action to protect the interest of our client as soon as we receive a response.
” We will continue with appropriate legal action to protect the interest of our client as soon as we receive a response.”
André Watson, the manager of SA Referees, had phoned Lloyd-Jones on 5 November, directly after the meeting of the referees’ selectors, to tell Lloyd-Jones that he was no longer on the Provincial Panel but Lloyd-Jones’s press release states: “Our client has not been informed in any official way of his removal from the Provincial Referees Panel up to and including the date of release of this statement. Lloyd-Jones only became aware of it with the official announcement of the 2010 Referees Merit Panel by SA Rugby on 17 November 2009. Lloyd-Jones does not appear anywhere on the list.”
Approached, Watson said that he had received the letter of 17 November, spent the day in meetings in Cape Town on 18 November and replied to the letter of 17 November on 19 November. Watson confirmed that Lloyd-Jones had been removed from the Provincial Panel, saying: “We picked a team and he’s not in the team.”
The attorney Grobbelaar was at one stage a vice-president of the Leopard Rugby Union,
In 2008 Deon van Blommestein, also a member of the Western Province Referees’ Society, took legal; steps after he was no longer included on the National Panel.
The matter went to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) which dismissed Van Blommestein’s application based on “unfair dismissal”, finding that referees were “independent contractors and not employees”.
