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Article 7/2026

What are some of the important principles contained in Government Gazette 52514 of 15 April 2025 (Gazette 1) dealing with employment equity?

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These important principles can be summarised as follows:

  • in terms of s15A(1) of the Employment Equity Act (EEA), the Minister may identify national economic sectors for the purposes of the EEA, having regard to any relevant code in the Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities, published by Statistics SA
  • item 1 of Gazette 1 identifies the 18 national economic sectors without any identification of sub-sectors – some indication of what should be taken into account in identifying the national economic sectors is to be found in EEA17
  • in terms of s15A(2) of the EEA, the purpose of sectoral numerical targets is to ensure equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups at all occupational levels in the workplace – this provision has been incorporated into item 2 of Gazette 1
  • in respect of the implementation of affirmative action, item 3 deals with the following important issues:
    • 5-year sectoral numerical targets for the various population groups and gender from top management, senior management, professionally qualified, middle-management and skilled and technical is provided, as well as employees with disabilities – these targets are not intended to add up to 100%, as such targets exclude white males with no disabilities and foreign nationals (non-designated persons)
    • the manner in which designated employers must take targets into account in applying affirmative action is defined with reference to the EEA, the General Administrative EE Regulations (General Administrative Regulations) and the Codes of Good Practice issued ito the EEA
    • a designated employer will not incur penalties or any form of disadvantage if, in the assessment of compliance of affirmative action, it shows that there are reasonable grounds for non-compliance with the EE targets
October 19, 2026

Section 41(2) of the BCEA regulates the entitlement of an employee, dismissed for reasons based on the employer’s operational requirements, to severance pay.

In terms of s41(4) of the BCEA, an employee, who unreasonably refused to accept the employer’s offer of alternative employment with that employer or any other employer, is not entitled to severance pay ito s41(2).

How does the assistance provided by the retrenching employer to a retrenched employee affect such employee’s entitlement to severance pay?

October 12, 2026

What is the short test to be applied to determine whether there is compliance with the reasonable decision-maker test?

When determining whether or not the arbitrator of the CCMA or bargaining council behaved like a reasonable decision-maker, what are the ‘questions to be asked’?

What is the test recently applied to determine whether an arbitration award should be set aside on review?

October 5, 2026

In the scenario where a group of employees, participating in a demonstration, picket, strike, etc, are participating in unlawful conduct, but a number of other employees, who are also participating in such demonstration, picket, strike, etc, are not participating in such unlawful conduct, will the employer be entitled to obtain an interdict against both groups of such employees?