Negotiations between organised business, organised labour and government, led by the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL), on a substantive labour law reform process have now concluded.

The negotiations between these “social partners” have been ongoing since April 2022.

The result of the conclusion of negotiations is 47 amendments to the Labour Relations Act, 13 amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), two amendments to the National Minimum Wage Act and three amendments to the Employment Equity Act.

The social partners' mandates are documented in a National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) report, which has been processed according to Nedlac’s governance structures.

The report has been submitted to Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth and the Amendment Bills will now be submitted to the State Law Adviser for vetting before proceeding to Cabinet and Parliament.

As part of the law reform process, emerging issues requiring future regulation in the labour market – such as heat stress resulting from climate change, the need for a just transition, and remote work – were considered.

While no legislative amendments have been proposed at this stage regarding these matters, working papers have been developed with recommendations for the DEL and social partners to take forward.

Among the changes that the social partners agreed upon is a new Code of Good Practice on Dismissals, consolidating the previous two codes of good practice on dismissals and dismissals for operational requirements while making special provisions for small businesses.

This code has now been published for public comment.

The labour law reform process began with submissions on proposed changes from organised labour, business, and government.

These proposals aimed to address key concerns, including:

• Changes in the labour market;
• The need to facilitate job creation and retention while providing an enabling environment for small and medium-sized enterprises;
• Bottlenecks in existing systems and improving the efficiency of labour market institutions such as the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and Labour Court; and
• Enhancing protections for atypical workers who are often unprotected under existing labour laws.

Labour Court judge-president Mogomotsi Edwin Molahlehi and the Essential Services Committee chairperson Advocate Luvuyo Bono also proposed amendments to improve their respective functions.

While the different constituencies sought various, sometimes conflicting, outcomes from the process, Nedlac said that the challenging negotiations were ultimately successful, in large part owing to the guidance of facilitators and support from legal drafters.

Significant consensus was achieved on the following key changes:

• Enhancing the efficiency of the CCMA, the Labour Court and the Essential Services Committee by:
  • Increasing certainty on jurisdictional matters for disputes arising under different statutes;
  • Limiting remedies available to high-earning employees and enabling arbitrators to conduct inquiries to expedite dispute resolution, thereby alleviating strain on the CCMA; and
  • Introducing a fee for parties who unreasonably delay proceedings.
• Increasing severance pay provisions from one to two weeks for each year of service;
• Strengthening protections for workers in non-standard employment arrangements, including sectoral determinations and the provision of organisational and bargaining rights;
• Updating retrenchment provisions to align with Labour Court rulings;
• Revising the scope of unfair labour practice disputes to exclude matters such as promotions;
• Restricting the validity of a certificate to protect socioeconomic protest action to 24 months from the date of issue;
• Enhancing protections for on-call workers;
• Strengthening the BCEA to address the nonpayment of pension and provident fund contributions by employers; and
• Temporarily reducing worker protections for startups that fall under the jurisdiction of bargaining councils.

The Nedlac report, draft amendment Bills and working papers can be accessed on the Nedlac website.