Director, Joint Sector Head
Fiona Leppan is a Director in our Employment Law practice, and Joint Head of the Mining & Minerals sector. She has extensive experience in the field of employee relations both from a litigation perspective and in terms of strategic planning. Training and development in this field has been a focal point. Fiona has actively trained clients on how to deal with internal disputes and to conduct enquiries and arbitrations. She has also established entire dispute resolution processes for a number of mining houses where disputes were dealt with by way of private conciliation and arbitration. Fiona works in various industries including mining, metals, engineering, retail, broadcasting, financial services and the commercial distributive trade. She has also been involved in occupational health and safety work.
Fiona's sector specialities include Employment litigation, individual labour law, collective bargaining law and strategic planning and Occupational Health & Safety in Mining & Minerals.
Fiona began her career as registrar to Mr Justice Margo in the then Supreme Court. In 1983 Fiona joined Webber Wentzel as a Candidate Attorney where she was later promoted to Partner. She subsequently joined Deneys Reitz as a Partner. In 1998, she left Deneys Reitz to establish the law firm Leppan Beech Attorneys. In 2007 Fiona joined Cliffe Dekker (now Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr) as a Director.
Employment Director Fiona Leppan joined Newzroom Afrika to take a look at whether South African employers are being sufficiently receptive to the additional burden of family responsibility that has been introduced to women working at home during lockdown.
Fiona Leppan, Director in the Employment practice joined Morning Live on SABC 2 to discuss gender parity in the workplace.
During her interview with 702, to discuss the global trend of a four-day work week, Fiona Leppan, Director in our Employment Law practice noted that, "doing collaborative sessions with employees and daily check-ins with them, where you are clearly defining their daily and weekly deliverables to make sure they are all met."
Recently, the Constitutional Court decided the case of Adam Damons v City of Cape Town, where an employee firefighter who was injured at work and sustained a disability (as a result of the employer's non-compliance with safety procedures) sought a position as a Senior Firefighter but was inhibited by the employer's Fire and Rescue Advancement Policy. The case raised important questions relating to unfair discrimination in the workplace, the place of the inherent requirements of the job defence and the scope of reasonable accommodation
Religious and cultural expression is of paramount importance among South Africans, and as we come down from the high of Heritage Day on 24 September, the conversation around religious, cultural, or political clothing in the workplace has come to the fore. Fiona Leppan, Director in our Employment Law practice delves into how the South African constitutions strikes a balance between cultural expression and workplace dress code policies.
Fiona Leppan, Director in the Employment practice joined Kaya FM to discuss the Flux Trend report. She explains why women are vulnerable when it comes to retrenchments.
