Labour Law Amendment Bill 2025: What South African Employers Need to Know

The Labour Law Amendment Bill 2025, published alongside the Labour Relations Amendment Bill 2025 in Government Gazette No. 54220 on 26 February 2026, marks the most significant overhaul of South African labour law in over a decade. Consequently, employers across the IT, engineering, skills development, and training sectors should start reviewing contracts, leave policies, and dismissal procedures now, ahead of possible implementation. The Bills amend the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Employment Equity Act, the Unemployment Insurance Act, and the National Minimum Wage Act, following extensive negotiation at NEDLAC between April 2022 and October 2024. As a South African labour and human capital advisory practice, LBD Consultants unpacks below what employers should prepare for, and why acting early matters.

Key Changes Under the Labour Law Amendment Bill 2025

The Labour Law Amendment Bill 2025 is not yet law. The Department of Employment and Labour invited written comment for 30 days after publication, a window that closed on 28 March 2026. Therefore, the Bill must still pass through Parliament, committee hearings, and further public participation before any section takes effect. As a result, employers reviewing employment contracts, retrenchment templates, and disciplinary procedures now are managing risk, not meeting a current legal obligation. Nevertheless, several proposed changes are significant enough that South African employers should start preparing today, given the size and reach of the reforms. Furthermore, this Bill works alongside a companion Bill, the Labour Relations Amendment Bill 2025, which reforms CCMA powers and dismissal dispute procedures, discussed further below.

BCEA Parental Leave Amendments Explained

One of the most notable proposed changes is a redesigned, gender-neutral parental leave regime. This follows the Constitutional Court’s judgment in Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour, which found the current fragmented leave categories, maternity, parental, adoption, and commissioning parental leave, to be unfairly discriminatory. Consequently, the Bill proposes a single unified parental leave entitlement available on birth, adoption, or surrogacy. Where only one parent takes leave, that parent qualifies for four months; where leave is shared between two parents, the four months is divided between them. In addition, the Unemployment Insurance Act’s parental benefit sections are proposed for repeal and re-enactment, with benefits paid at 66% of ordinary earnings and eligibility requiring at least 13 weeks of prior UIF contributions. Because the interim constitutional order already applies in practice ahead of the Bill’s formal passage, employers should review leave policies and UI-19 payroll processes without delay.

CCMA Jurisdiction Expansion and Dispute Resolution Changes

The companion Labour Relations Amendment Bill significantly broadens CCMA jurisdiction. Under the proposed changes, the CCMA gains rule-making authority over facilitation, the power to hear objections to compliance orders issued by labour inspectors, and the ability to convert non-complied orders into arbitration awards. Moreover, the CCMA would assist workers with enforcing awards, including sheriff’s fees, deal with disputes spanning multiple labour statutes in a single process, and award interest on unpaid employer contributions to pension and medical benefit funds. Similarly, harassment-based unfair discrimination claims, currently limited to sexual harassment for CCMA referral, would extend to psychological, gender-based, racial, and other harassment claims, lowering the cost and procedural barrier for complainants. On the retrenchment side, the section 189A facilitation process changes too: where a facilitator has been engaged, disputes may proceed directly to the Labour Court without a further conciliation referral, and unions may refer procedural and substantive fairness together rather than through separate processes.

South African Retrenchment and Severance Pay Reform

Section 41 of the BCEA is proposed to double statutory severance pay for operational requirements and insolvency-related dismissals, from one week’s to two weeks’ remuneration per completed year of service. However, this increase would apply prospectively only, to years of service after the amendment takes effect, not retrospectively. Additionally, disputes limited to the quantum of severance pay, where the fairness of the retrenchment itself is not disputed, could go directly to CCMA or bargaining council arbitration rather than a full unfair dismissal process. Meanwhile, a new section 9B would require employers with more than ten employees to specify, in writing, maximum hours, availability windows, and notice periods for on-call, zero-hours, and if-and-when workers, while a new section 50A widens the definition of an employee to capture disguised self-employment and platform-based contracting. Furthermore, dismissed employees would need to elect between an unfairness or unlawfulness claim, except where the dismissal is automatically unfair, in which case an election between arbitration and the Labour Court remains available. Finally, an unconfirmed earnings threshold, reportedly around R1.8 million a year, may remove reinstatement as a remedy for high earners, though this figure has not yet been verified against the Bill’s own text.

How LBD Consultants Helps Employers Prepare for the Labour Law Amendment Bill 2025

Given the scale of the Labour Law Amendment Bill 2025, the right posture for employers is preparation without panic. Therefore, LBD Consultants’ Labour Law Division, led by an Advocate, reviews employment contracts, leave policies, retrenchment templates, and disciplinary procedures against the proposed text, so that implementation becomes an activation step rather than a scramble if and when the Bills pass. As a result, IT, engineering, skills development, and training sector employers gain a head start on South African employment law compliance rather than a rushed response later. Consequently, LBD Consultants recommends employers use the current comment and drafting period productively, since several provisions, particularly the section 189A procedural changes and the election-of-remedies requirement, benefit from proactive review. Contact LBD Consultants today to discuss how the proposed reforms affect your business.