{"id":808052,"date":"2025-01-22T14:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T12:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=808052"},"modified":"2025-01-22T14:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T12:02:45","slug":"new-retrenchment-rules-coming-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/808052\/new-retrenchment-rules-coming-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New retrenchment rules coming for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Department of Labour and Employment has published a new Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissals, which introduces a system for possible retrenchments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The draft code was gazetted in accordance with the Labour Relations Act (LRA) on 21 January 2025 and was signed by Minister of Employment and Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr noted that the draft code emphasises that the purpose of a fair procedure is to foster dialogue and reflection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This fair procedure allows an employee to respond to allegations of misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The draft code also states investigations and enquiries into misconduct can be informal, with their nature tailored to the specific context and size of the employer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They can also look into the frequency and severity of the misconduct in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr said that his approach is consistent with the decriminalisation of disciplinary processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The draft code also includes guidelines on dismissals due to operational requirements, which were previously absent from the existing Code of Good Practice on Dismissals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was instead found under a  separate Code of Good Practice on Operational Requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Draft Code&#8217;s proposed Annexure A also states that notices given in terms of section 189 of the LRA should be given in this form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This relates to notices of possible retrenchments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interested parties will have 60 days, until 22 March, to submit their proposals to the Department of Employment and Labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissals can be found below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Draft-Code-of-Good-Practice-on-Dismissals.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissals.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-3c823c36-27e5-4bdd-b88a-a5cc4ef5fbb4\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Draft-Code-of-Good-Practice-on-Dismissals.pdf\">Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissals<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Draft-Code-of-Good-Practice-on-Dismissals.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-3c823c36-27e5-4bdd-b88a-a5cc4ef5fbb4\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not the first major update from the Department of Labour this year, with the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA) coming into force on 1 January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new laws, which were signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April 2023, took time to be implemented amid extreme backlash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the changes in the EEAA are specific to employers with over 50 employees, called designated employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most noteworthy of amendments allow the Minister Meth to set numerical targets for the 18 different sectors identified by the Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The amendments are set to introduce sectoral numerical targets to ensure that there is an equitable representation of historically disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This includes race, gender and disability at all occupational levels in the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Designated employers will need to comply with sectoral targets once the laws are enforced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two separate draft regulations that set out the proposed sectoral targets have already been published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Minister Meth is yet to issue a final version of such regulations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the regulations not being published, employers were still expected to submit their Employment Equity (EE) reports for 2024 earlier this month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deadline for employers to submit their 2024 Reports (EEA2 &amp; EEA4 forms) was midnight on 15 January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said,  the Department of Employment and Labour&nbsp;said that employers are expected to use EE legislation that predates the latest amendments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Labour has opened a new Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissals for public comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":782047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1523,4444],"class_list":["post-808052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-cliffe-dekker-hofmeyr","tag-department-of-labour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808052"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808087,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808052\/revisions\/808087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}