Another major change to our employment law is on the way via a new section 188B to be added to the Labour Relations Act.

At present, all employees have recourse to the CCMA (or a bargaining council or private arbitration) and the Labour Court if they are dismissed and feel that the reason behind it or the procedure followed was not fair.

New section 188B will effectively strip employees earning above a certain amount – still to be determined by the Minister of Labour – of the right to challenge the fairness of their dismissals in the vast majority of cases. Provided the employer gives the employee three months’ written notice of his or her dismissal (or longer if required by their employment contract) or pays out the equivalent salary instead of notice, and the dismissal is not for an automatically unfair reason, the dismissal will be regarded by the…