Employment and Labour Law

“The employer shall ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that all persons who may be directly affected by his activities are not thereby exposed to hazards to their health or safety.” (Occupational Health and Safety Act) The season of goodwill, holidays, celebrations, and year-end functions is upon us once again. And with it comes a timely reminder to employers that, while their “zero tolerance” alcohol-at-work policies may be key to maintaining health and safety in the workplace, they have their limits when it comes to disciplining offenders. Two teaspoons of cough mixture A forklift driver with an impeccable six-year…

“Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare.” (Ed Asner, actor with a great sense of humour!) A game-changing judgment from our Constitutional Court sets out new rules for parental leave. The joy of becoming parents, and a father’s leave dilemma The birth of a couple’s first child presented them with both a bundle of joy and a practical dilemma. Dad wanted to be the baby’s primary caregiver while his wife carried on running her two businesses, so he asked his employer for four months’ parental leave. “Sorry,” said his boss, “the law only allows you ten days”. In…

“There’s no trust, no faith, no honesty in men.” (William Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet) A recent Labour Court decision is a stark reminder to employees that an employment relationship is founded on trust, and that any breach of that trust could justify dismissal. Pocketing a 50c coin to balance her till The responsibilities of a bank teller included “balancing cash daily, reporting differences, as well as maintaining effective security controls, including maintaining a high level of honesty, integrity and ethical standards.” Her clean record over the four years of her employment ended abruptly when a monthly surprise check of…

“When cognitive capacities are the focus, the 70s are the new 50s.” (IMF) Fake news articles suggesting that South Africa was implementing a new standard retirement age policy, supposedly from 30 May this year, recently went viral on social media. Convincingly structured to look realistic (AI’s dark hand there?), the articles suggested that 65 is the new universal standard retirement age for all employees across all sectors. Complete hogwash.  What the law actually says Age discrimination is “automatically unfair”, and any employer found to be guilty of it by unlawfully forcing an employee to retire early faces a compensation order of…

“The legal principles, as I understand them, do not confer on me the powers of Father Christmas. I cannot rescue the un-rescuable.” (Quoted in the judgment below) We all want loyal, competent staff who remain motivated to stay with us in the long term, but the reality is that a degree of employee churn is always inevitable.  Imagine then this scenario – a key employee (someone senior, a specialist, or perhaps even a partner or director) is fired or leaves you. They take with them intimate knowledge of your business. They know all your trade secrets, your pricing processes, your…

It’s vital for both employers and employees to understand the practical and legal differences between permanent and fixed term employment arrangements. What is a fixed term contract? A fixed term contract is a temporary employment arrangement with a specified start date and an agreed end date. This could be a fixed end date or a reference to a specified task or project reaching completion, or to a specified event. Importantly, you must be able to prove that your employee agreed to the end date. A standard contract of employment, by contrast, is for an unlimited period and ends only when…

From 1 April 2025, the earnings threshold under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) will increase, impacting not only the BCEA but also employee protections under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) and Employment Equity Act (EEA).  Broadly speaking, employees earning less than the threshold amount are entitled to stronger labour protections. The new threshold  The threshold rises by only 2.9% this year, increasing from R254,371.67 per year (R21,197.64 per month) to R261,748.45 per year (R21,812.37 per month). What counts as “Earnings”? “Earnings” (for this purpose only) means “the regular annual remuneration before deductions, i.e. income tax, pension, medical and similar payments…

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) for each “ordinary hour worked” has been increased from 1 March 2025 by 4.4% from R27,58 per hour to R28,79 per hour.  Domestic workers: Assuming a work month of 22 days x 8 hours per day, R28,79 per hour equates to R230,32 per day or R5067,04 per month. Of course, this is just a bare legal minimum: the Living Wage calculator will help you check whether you are actually paying your domestic worker enough to cover a household’s “minimal need” (adjust the “Assumptions” in the calculator to ensure that the figures used are up-to-date). Disclaimer: The information provided…

“Only in our dreams are we free; the rest of the time we need wages.” (Terry Pratchett) Retrenching employees can be an expensive business. You’ll have to pay each employee a minimum of one week’s pay for each completed year of ongoing service, and that total liability can add up alarmingly.A recent Labour Court ruling has however set out clear guidelines for avoiding that cost by arranging alternative employment for your retrenched employees. A lost cleaning contract and a raft of retrenchments A contract cleaning services company, fearing it would lose a particular contract in an upcoming tender process, warned…