{"id":837292,"date":"2025-09-10T15:16:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=837292"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:16:53","slug":"after-work-hour-warning-for-employers-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/837292\/after-work-hour-warning-for-employers-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"After work hour warning for employers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As more countries jump to legislate “the right to disconnect” for employees, legal experts at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) warn South African bosses to get ahead of any similar moves back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right to disconnect has gained traction in countries like France, Brazil, Italy and now Australia, with laws and regulation giving workers the right to ignore or refuse communication from employers outside typical working hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulations vary by country and come with their own caveats and exceptions, but all codify workers’ rights to not be contacted when not working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia is the latest country to formally adopt these rights. From 26 August 2025, all employees in the country now have the right to refuse<\/strong><\/a> to monitor, read or respond to employer contact, unless doing so is unreasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While South Africa does not currently have any similar legislation in the works\u2014and the likelihood of this becoming a focus any time soon seems slim\u2014legal experts say employers and businesses should be on top of the trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Anli Bezuidenhout, director of employment law, and Leila Moosa, senior associate at CDH, legislating the right to disconnect in South Africa is a difficult prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is due to the country’s widely mixed workforce, where most workers are employed in sectors that already have regulated working hours and little need to be contacted outside of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working hours in South Africa are regulated under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), where a typical work week is 45 hours, and overtime is capped at about 10 hours beyond that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This automatically applies to all workers earning below the earnings threshold of R261,748 per annum as of 1 April 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the more corporate or services setting\u2014typically those earning above the threshold\u2014working conditions, including work hours, are negotiated in contracts between employers and employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not uniform and can change dramatically depending on what the job entails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As things get focused on more senior positions and management, the expectation to work beyond the hours in a typical work day increases, as the responsibilities of those positions change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, just because “right to disconnect” legislation is unlikely to be a right fit for South Africa, it does not mean the concept should be ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal experts warned employers to review their policies and to ensure that they are not overstepping, and that their communication requirements are clearly states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Employers would do quite well in South Africa to take proactive steps to consider what their policy positions are on contact outside of what would be core working hours,” the experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In doing so, ensure they are actually outlining the expectations on work or work-related communications outside those hours<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reality check for bosses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the legal experts, the right to disconnect trend has gained traction around the world for a reason, and isn’t something that can simply be dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As technology has developed and expanded, there has been a greater expectation among employers that their workers will always be connected and available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other emerging trends like work-from-home, remote work and flexible working hours\u2014mainly as a response to the Covid pandemic, but now ongoing\u2014have also blurred the lines between work and home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, employees have started burning out, leading to greater demand for better work-life balance and a keener focus on mental and physical health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if not an explicit demand from employees (ie, protests to bosses), it is an emerging demand seen in recruitment, where candidates voice these kinds of expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other side, if employees demand more flexibility, employers are also within their rights to demand the same in terms of communication. This is the core of finding a suitable negotiated position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like other ‘drawcards’ to attract top quality workers to positions, having clear guidelines on working hours and communication, and making them reasonable, can be a ‘win-win’ for both the employees and the employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing so will also benefit companies in other ways, the CHD legal heads said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, it would bring their policies in line with international standards and trends, making their operations more globally attractive if playing in that space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, and possibly more importantly, these companies will be far better prepared to deal with any local legistlation, if the government ever does decide to pursue similar regulations in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It will do good for any businesses in the event that we ever do see policy integration or potential ‘right to disconnect’ in law in South Africa,” the experts said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As more countries jump to legislate “the right to disconnect” for employees, legal experts at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) warn South African bosses to get ahead of any similar moves back home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":797773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17271,23577,23578],"class_list":["post-837292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-chd","tag-right-to-dicsonnect","tag-work-hours"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837292","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=837292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837298,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837292\/revisions\/837298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}