Employment
CCMA conciliation before any dismissal dispute reaches a court
Dismissal requires both a fair reason and a fair procedure. Substantively the reason must fall within misconduct, incapacity or operational requirements; procedurally the employee must be heard. Almost every dispute is referred first to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which makes the CCMA — not the Labour Court — the practical centre of South African employment law.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The CCMA conciliates and (for misconduct and incapacity) arbitrates; the Labour Court hears retrenchment, discrimination and automatically unfair dismissal claims and reviews CCMA awards, with appeals to the Labour Appeal Court.
- Deadline — Refer an unfair dismissal to the CCMA within 30 days of the date of dismissal
- Deadline — Refer an unfair labour practice within 90 days
- Deadline — Review an arbitration award in the Labour Court within six weeks
- Deadline — Statutory minimum annual leave: 21 consecutive days per leave cycle
Governing law
- Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 — unfair dismissal, unfair labour practices, organisational rights, s 189 retrenchment
- Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 — hours, leave, notice and termination minima
- Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 — prohibits unfair discrimination and requires affirmative action plans from designated employers
- National Minimum Wage Act 9 of 2018 — a single national floor, uprated annually by the Minister
- Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993
In practice
The LRA was designed to move labour disputes out of the courts and into cheap, fast, compulsory conciliation. A dismissed employee pays nothing to refer a matter to the CCMA and can obtain an arbitration award within months, which is why the body handles a very large annual caseload. Compensation for an ordinary unfair dismissal is capped at 12 months' remuneration and at 24 months where the dismissal is automatically unfair — for example dismissal for pregnancy, for trade-union activity, or for participating in a protected strike.