Incapacity, disability and dismissal : the implications for South African labour jurisprudence

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Date

2010

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of the Western Cape

Abstract

Disability in South African labour law is reduced to incapacity. An evaluation of disability and incapacity was made to advocate a clear conceptual break between the two concepts. Also, that disability should be grounded in a social model paradigm of disability which was a materialist critique of how capitalism constructs disability. To enhance the analysis discourse analysis was employed to illustrate how language, ideology and power sustained the notion of disability in capitalist society. A comparative analysis was made drawing on American disability jurisprudence and Canadian disability jurisprudence to illustrate the difference in approach between the two legal systems with a suggestion that the Canadian approach was better suited to the development of a South African disability law. And the development of South African disability law it was argued would benefit if a legal construction of disability was crafted to deal with the obstacles that disabled people encounter in the work-place.

Description

Magister Legum - LLM

Keywords

Dignity, Discrimination, Ddisability, Dismissal, Employment equity, Incapacity, Canadian disability jurisprudence, American disability jurisprudence, Medical model of disability, Social model of disability, Legal construction of disability

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