Cape Town — The case of the former head of the police's Cape Town dog unit, Ivan Myers, who is battling to be reinstated following his axing when he alleged the dogs were underfed, has been held over in the Labour Court.

Myers was dismissed in July last year after speaking out over the alleged underfeeding of police dogs at the Maitland dog unit.

He took his case to the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council, but his appeal was unsuccessful. He then sought arbitration on the matter, but it was ruled that his dismissal was fair.

Myers has now turned to the Labour Court in the hope that the arbitrator's decision will be reviewed by the court, and overturned.

While Myers and his lawyer Johan Nortje waited for the their case to be heard on Wednesday, the court had allowed it to be held over to the following day because of time constraints.

Myers first landed himself in hot water in 2006 when he was reportedly suspended because he had failed to follow orders issued by the commander of the dog unit.

He was then later dismissed after speaking out to the media over allegations that police dogs were so malnourished that they were resorting to eating their own faeces after their food portions were reduced from 700g to 500g a day.

The police denied the allegations.