Employment law in South Africa has long been a changing landscape, and 2025 is proving to be no exception.

In this article, we unpack two important workplace changes that employers must adhere to now and also turn our attention to proposed further changes on the horizon.

Happening now…

In January 2025, we reported on proposed changes to the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (“the Code”) in Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act 1995. On 4 September 2025, the Code was gazetted and is now fully operable. The finalised version of the Code is identical to the draft Code released in January 2025, which we analysed here. Given that it has now been formally adopted, it is crucial for all employers to:

• review and amend disciplinary practices, probationary policies and employee performance procedures; and
• educate HR teams and line managers on the impacts of the new Code and how it has changed established practices.

Amendments to the Employment Equity Act 1998 have been some years in the making, and new Regulations were released in April this year. By far the two most notable changes were:

• the amendments for the requirements of a “designated employer” (now 50 or more employees only); and 
• the introduction of sectoral targets set by the Department of Employment & Labour (“DOEL”).       

These changes became operable for affected employers on 1 September 2025; from that date, all designated employers are required to implement a five-year employment equity plan. 

More to come…

The rapid pace of change in workplace laws is showing no sign of slowing in 2026.    Earlier this year, the National Economic Development & Labour Council (“NEDLAC”) proposed a raft of further changes to employment legislation, some 65 amendments in total.

These proposed changes have not yet entered the parliamentary process, and therefore, there is some way to go before becoming formally adopted, but possible changes employers may see in 2026 include:

• The introduction of a qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims, such as a requirement that only employees with more than three months’ service will have the right to refer an unfair dismissal dispute. If adopted, this will exclude most probationary employees and is likely to lead to a significant reduction in the volume of unfair dismissal claims. It may also increase an employer’s willingness to hire new candidates, given the comfort of a reduced risk of a dispute in the event of a poor hire.

• The limitation of remedies for highly paid employees, who will no longer be eligible for reinstatement for most types of unfair dismissal disputes. The threshold proposed is R1.8M per annum, and if above that, an applicant can only be compensated and not reinstated.

• Employees impacted by redundancy may be entitled to significantly more remuneration in the future, with a proposal to increase the minimum severance payment of one week’s pay for every completed year of service to two weeks’ pay. This additional expense may be substantial in large-scale redundancy programs.

• The reduction in the types of unfair labour practice disputes. At present, unfair labour practice claims can relate to complaints about promotion, training, benefits and the like. All these may fall away in the future, restricting unfair labour practices to disputes about unfair suspension, unfair discipline and occupational detriments against whistleblowers.

Workplace Strategies will continue to monitor the progress of these proposed changes.

For now, employers should focus on the impact and requirements of the new Code and, if they are a “designated employer” and haven’t already, urgently commence preparations for the implementation of their employment equity plan.