In a unanimously agreed judgement by a five-man panel, Justice Kirby dismissed all the findings by Justice Dingake using words like erroneous, overboard and inconsistent."The learned Judge [Dingake] set the tone for his judgement at the outset when he stated that the court was called upon to decide the legal rights of public officers who were dismissed for taking part in an illegal strike.
"The actual issue to be determined was not that, but the narrower question of the rights of essential service employees in the public service who were dismissed for defying a court order to return to work from their illegal strike which was endangering the lives and welfare of members of the public," said Justice Kirby. He said the second observation made by Justice Dingake in setting the stage for his judgement was that the courts would not lightly intervene in a strike power play, once a strike has commenced, since this may unfairly tilt the balance in favour of one or other of the contestants. In support of that proposition Justice Dingake quoted at some length from a South African judgement.
