One of the basic principles of natural justice is that two people who are guilty of the same misconduct should be disciplined in similar ways.

Applied in the workplace, this means that an employer must be consistent in his application of discipline and where two employees have been engaged in the same or similar misconduct, they must be subjected to the same disciplinary action.

Jonathan Goldberg, CEO of Global Business Solutions, advised that a failure to consistently discipline employees may lead to an employer being found to have acted unfairly and as a result, compensation or reinstatement may be issued.

"While an employer has discretion and flexibility, one must still be able to justify any differential treatment on a fair, reasonable and objective basis," Goldberg said.