LABOUR INJUSTICE: Unfairly dismissed worker takes on Aspen Pharmacare in man-alone fight for job

“When you are unjustly and unfairly dismissed, it eats away at the very core of your faith and of your belief – and your humanity,” says Roderick Munnick, who has spent nearly a decade fighting pharmaceutical giant Aspen Pharmacare over a dismissal that upended his life.

The 50-year-old father, who has no legal background, took on Aspen single-handedly in a bid to save his job as a production technician after his lawyers “disappointed” him just weeks before his case, related to inciting employees to participate in an unlawful picket, was due to be heard.

In September 2026, Munnick’s determination and refusal to let the corporation trample over him paid off when labour court Judge Molatelo Robert Makhura ruled that Aspen had unfairly dismissed him in 2016 and ordered the company to reinstate him.

On 9 October, just 15 days after the ruling, as Munnick was beginning to pick up the pieces of his life, Aspen indicated that it would appeal against the judgment.

Having filed a notice to oppose the appeal, Munnick intends, once again, to face the legal battle without legal representation.

“I sort of expected it, 90%. But it only sunk in, like, Sunday. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t eat the whole day.

“Because [just] when you think it’s over, you’re back at square one,” Munnick told Daily Maverick on Thursday.

“I only get moments of joy when you dream about what’s going to happen, you know, when this is finally over.

“You know, about how you’re going to spend time with your children again. How you’re going to be able to provide for your mother again. How you’re going to be able to help the soup kitchen again.”

Since his dismissal, Munnick has lived in a windowless 2m by 8m shelter behind his mother’s home in Schauderville, Gqeberha. It has one door and a single light.

He says losing his job has left him struggling to support his children and help his pensioner mother.

‘It eats away at your heart and soul’

Speaking to Daily Maverick on Thursday in the dimly lit room he now calls home, Munnick said he moved on to his mother’s property after his landlady evicted him during the Covid-19 pandemic. The small space contains a bed, a wardrobe displaying framed photos of his two children, and couches.

In these cramped and poorly lit conditions, Munnick spent weeks preparing for his September 2026 labour court hearing.

“I was forced to sit up from 12 noon until 4am. And I’m not talking about just one week. I’m talking from June until the night before the hearing. I couldn’t even sleep,” he said.

“It’s just reading and reading and reading until you fall asleep, then you wake up and carry on.”

He says the lengthy fight to save his job has taken a heavy toll.

“Not being able to secure permanent work, you know, it can really eat into your heart and into your soul. And it can lead you down a path of darkness.

“It’s not just cost me my family, but a lifestyle I became accustomed to, looking after my children, taking them on vacation, being able to give my mom extra money every month, and supporting the two soup kitchens that I was supporting,” said Munnick, who once dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

Losing his income has strained his relationship with his children. His daughter is still at school, while his son, an LLB graduate, is pursuing an entertainment career abroad.

On Wednesday, Munnick’s daughter celebrated her 16th birthday. A hug and the words “I love you” were the only thing he could gift her, he said.

Showing framed photos of his children dressed in white, Munnick tries but struggles to hold back tears as he calls them his “North Star”.

“I prefer spending whatever money I get on my daughter because I don’t see her that often,” he said.

The dismissal that changed everything

Munnick’s life was uprooted when he was dismissed on 8 September 2016 after a workplace protest at Aspen’s Gqeberha operation in May that year.

Employees from the company’s Small Volume Parenteral division and Unit 1 had gathered outside the premises during their lunch break to protest over workplace concerns, including incentives, warehousing grading and transport issues.

Aspen regarded the action as unlawful and issued warnings against further picketing. The protest continued during lunch breaks on 19 and 20 May.

Munnick admitted participating in the protest. However, his dismissal was ultimately based on a separate allegation: that he had incited employees to participate in an unlawful picket.

He had emailed employees in the engineering section, urging them to stand together in support of their workplace concerns. In one message, he expressed hope that the plant as a whole would “rise up and stand up for what [they] believe in and to not give up”.

In subsequent emails, he questioned the company’s assertion that the protest was unlawful and said the action would continue if management did not meet the employees’ demands.

Aspen approached the labour court for an interdict. On 23 May 2016, the court issued an interim order declaring the picket unlawful and prohibiting employees from continuing with it. The order was confirmed on 2 June.

Munnick challenged his dismissal, maintaining that he had genuinely believed the protest was lawful. He said this belief had been reinforced by advice from his union, the South African Chemical Workers’ Union (Sacwu).

At arbitration, a commissioner upheld his dismissal. Munnick launched a review application in 2018.

Why the labour court ruled in his favour

In his ruling, Judge Makhura found that the evidence did not support the conclusion that Munnick had incited employees to participate in the protest.

The employees had already decided to embark on the picket before Munnick sent his emails. There was no evidence that he had influenced that decision, nor that the messages had been received or understood by the participating employees as encouragement to begin or continue the action.

The judge also accepted Munnick’s unchallenged evidence that he genuinely believed the protest was lawful, an understanding reinforced by Sacwu’s advice.

The judgment identified a further problem with Aspen’s handling of the matter: inconsistent discipline.

Another employee faced an incitement allegation, but received a final written warning without even being subjected to a disciplinary hearing.

In court papers, Aspen’s human resources representative, Ester Wolmarans, could not adequately explain the difference in treatment. She conceded that it was “probably a mistake”.

The judge found that the company’s treatment of Munnick could not be reconciled with the treatment of other employees involved in the same events.

Even if Munnick had committed misconduct, Makhura held, dismissal would have been disproportionate in the circumstances.

The court declared his dismissal substantively unfair, set aside the arbitration award insofar as it concerned him and substituted its own order.

‘I was the happiest ever working at Aspen’

Despite the hardship, Munnick says he never gave up hope of returning to his former workplace.

“I was the happiest ever working at Aspen,” he said, his expression brightening as he recalled his time there.

“If it weren’t for the love of God, I would have hated those responsible for putting me in this position. But I don’t hate anyone.”

“I bear no ill will, no grudges, harbour no resentment. But it has been the … worst years of my life. The worst years of my life.”

Aspen spokesperson Shauneen Beukes declined to comment, saying the company did not discuss internal or employee-related matters through the media. DM