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

The negotiations started in April 2022.

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

The social partners’ mandates are documented in a National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) report, which has been submitted to Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth. The Amendment Bills will now be submitted to the State Law Adviser for vetting before proceeding to Cabinet and Parliament.

Among the changes agreed on 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,

aimed at addressing 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; and
• enhancing protections for atypical workers who are often unprotected under existing labour laws.

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

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; 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.
• 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.
• Enhancing protections for on-call workers.
• Strengthening the BCEA to address the nonpayment of pension and provident fund contributions by employers.
• Temporarily reducing worker protections for startups that fall under the jurisdiction of bargaining councils.