The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has dismissed an application by former referee Deon van Blommenstein based on "unfair dismissal" after the South African Rugby Union removed him from the national panel of referees.

SARU maintained that all referees - other than those on full-time contracts - were independent contractors and not employees and they were therefore within their rights to promote refereesto and them relegate from national panels according to set performance criteria.

The CCMA commissioner found in favour of SARU and that Mr Van Blommenstein was an independent contractor and, on that basis, the CCMA did not have jurisdiction to arbitrate on whether the referee had been unfairly removed from the National Panel.

Mr Van Blommenstein retired from refereeing after being removed from the national panel at the end of 2008.

Each side pays its own costs.

This is the first such case in South Africa.