The Labour Appeal Court in Durban has ordered Woolworths to reinstate Gladys Arunachellam, a supervisor with 28 years of service at the La Lucia Mall branch, after she was dismissed in May 2019 for referring to till operators as "dumb" during a conversation with trainees and another employee. Although Arunachellam denied using the word, claiming she said "confused," the court upheld earlier findings that she had used the offending term. The central dispute was whether dismissal was an appropriate sanction for this single workplace remark.