{"id":821385,"date":"2025-04-19T07:05:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T05:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=821385"},"modified":"2025-04-19T07:05:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T05:05:42","slug":"bosses-ending-work-from-home-in-south-africa-what-the-law-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/821385\/bosses-ending-work-from-home-in-south-africa-what-the-law-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Bosses ending work-from-home in South Africa – what the law says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Legal experts have warned that employers cannot simply end remote work and order staff back to the office\u2014but it depends on how work-from-home was initially set out, how it was written into contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees in several key sectors\u2014including banking, financial services and even in some government agencies\u2014have been given orders to return to the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflects a broader global trend of the ‘work-from-home’ lifestyles that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic coming to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further evidence of this happening in South Africa in particular was recently demonstrated in traffic volumes, drive times and fuel spend data showing a return to levels seen before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many employees have asked whether it is legal for an employer to just order them back to the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Yvonne Mkefa, Director in the Employment Law practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, the answer is a bit more complex than a simple yes or no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mkefa noted that remote work and work-from-home are not new concepts that suddenly emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the pandemic made it far more common and in many cases an necessity, these styles of working existed long before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, there is no specific provision for remote work in South Africa’s labour laws, including the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) and the Labour Relations Act (LRA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, provisions for remote work, hybrid work and virtual work are determined when negotiating and signing contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a rule, employers are allowed to make changes in the workplace\u2014but they must do so lawfully and fairly,” Mkefa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the law says about work-from-home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Yvonne Mkefa, Director in the Employment Law practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mkefa said businesses must follow the legal framework governing remote work and the extent of employer’s authority when requiring a return to office-based work, or lack thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is no specific legislation governing remote working, the LRA, BCEA and employment contracts determine where employees work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, these will also determine whether requiring employees to return to the workplace is reasonable and lawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the BCEA, employers must provide their employees with written particulars of employment, including particulars of their place, or places, of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a contract of employment stipulates that the place of work is ‘remote working’, the employer is bound to this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As such, without consent, a demand by the employer for the employee to return to ‘working from an office’ would constitute breach of contract and a unilateral amendment of terms and conditions of employment,” Mkefa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, where the contract of employment specifically retains the right for the employer to determine the place of work, the employer has a contractual right, and can unilaterally impose such place of work on the employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even if a contract allows bosses to change the place of work, this still has to be done fairly, the legal expert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, an employer cannot change the place of work for only some, and not all, employees based on race or for an ulterior motive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While the LRA does not expressly regulate the place of work, it infuses the employment relationship with equity, including fairness,” Mkefa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When employers want to make changes in the workplace, employees\u2014or their representatives\u2014must be engaged by way of either consultation or negotiation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers will want to adhere to this so as not to breach contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter can become even more complex if working from home is considered a benefit. Employers need to act fairly in relation to this as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even where a benefit is not a contractual term and condition of employment, consultation ought to be resorted to by an employer when seeking to effect a change to a workplace benefit or practice,” Mkefa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key takeaway is that bosses can order workers back to the office if they have the contractual right to do so\u2014but this must be done fairly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If contracts have work-from-home written in, an order back to the office would be a breach of contract, and would require consent and negotiation with employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bosses in South Africa are ordering workers back to the office, raising many questions over whether the sudden end to work-from-home is legal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":790102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1523,21325,22338],"class_list":["post-821385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-cliffe-dekker-hofmeyr","tag-work-from-home-2","tag-yvonne-mkefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821385","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821452,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821385\/revisions\/821452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}