What we know so far
South Africa’s proposed overhaul of workplace law has moved past its first public comment period and is heading toward formal parliamentary introduction, marking the next phase of what legal experts describe as the most significant round of labour reform in more than a decade.
The Labour Law Amendment Bill, 2025 and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, 2025 were published by Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth in Government Gazette No. 54220 on 26 February 2026. The bills propose amendments to five core employment statutes: the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), the Labour Relations Act (LRA), the Employment Equity Act (EEA), the Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA) and the National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA).
The first public comment period closed on 28 March 2026. The Department of Employment and Labour has indicated that further opportunities for public input are expected as the bills are formally introduced to Parliament.
The proposed reforms follow more than two years of negotiations at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), conducted between April 2022 and October 2024. They also respond directly to the Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling in Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour [2025] ZACC 20, handed down on 3 October 2025, which declared South Africa’s existing parental leave framework unconstitutional and gave Parliament 36 months to pass remedial legislation.
Why it matters
The bills, if enacted in their current form, would reshape how employers manage dismissals, leave, retrenchments and non-standard work arrangements across every sector of the economy. The changes affect millions of South African workers, from corporate employees earning above the BCEA threshold to casual, on-call and zero-hours workers who currently have limited statutory protections.
Legal experts at Webber Wentzel, the firm that advised on the Van Wyk case, have described the parental leave amendments as the provisions with the most immediate and widespread operational impact. The Constitutional Court’s 36-month deadline, running from October 2025, means Parliament faces a hard cut-off of approximately October 2028 to finalise the parental leave provisions. Failure to legislate within that window would result in the unconstitutional provisions lapsing entirely.
For employers, the combined effect of doubled severance obligations, new on-call work regulations and a restructured dismissal compensation framework will require significant policy, payroll and contract revisions. Businesses that rely heavily on casual or zero-hours labour, including sectors such as hospitality, retail, agriculture and private security, face the most immediate operational adjustments.
Key details and figures
The bills contain several major proposed changes across multiple areas of employment law.
On parental leave, the draft legislation replaces the existing fragmented system of maternity, paternity, adoption and commissioning parental leave with a single, gender-neutral framework. A single employed parent or a parent who is the only employed party in a parental relationship would be entitled to four consecutive months of parental leave. Where both parents are employed, they would share a collective entitlement of four months and ten days, divided by agreement. Neither parent may take more than four months. The adoption leave age threshold would increase from children under two years to children up to six years of age. In cases of miscarriage or stillbirth in the third trimester, six weeks of parental leave would apply. Corresponding amendments to the UIA would align Unemployment Insurance Fund benefits with the new leave structure, providing income support at 66% of earnings up to R17,712 per month for up to 17.32 weeks and ten days.
On severance pay, the statutory minimum for dismissals based on operational requirements would double from one week’s remuneration per completed year of service to two weeks per completed year. The increase would apply prospectively only, meaning employees would earn one week of severance for service completed before the commencement date and two weeks for service completed afterward. Employers planning retrenchments that span the commencement date would need to apply a dual calculation.
On dismissal and compensation, the bills propose that employees earning more than R1.8 million per annum would no longer be entitled to reinstatement or re-employment as a remedy for unfair dismissal, except in cases of automatically unfair dismissal. Compensation for ordinary unfair dismissals would remain capped at 12 months’ remuneration but would also be subject to a new monetary ceiling of R1.8 million per year, adjusted annually for inflation in line with the Consumer Price Index. Employees in their first three months of employment, or during a reasonably justifiable longer probation period, would not be entitled to institute unfair dismissal claims.
On non-standard work arrangements, the bills introduce a new regulatory framework for on-call, zero-hours and similar unpredictable work arrangements affecting employees who work for employers with more than ten staff members. Employers would be required to record key scheduling terms in writing, including maximum hours, availability periods and reasonable notice periods for both the reporting and cancellation of work. The framework aims to provide scheduling predictability and protect vulnerable workers from last-minute shift cancellations.
Additional proposed changes include allowing all unfair discrimination claims based on harassment to be referred to the CCMA, not only sexual harassment claims as is currently the case. New employers with fewer than 50 employees would be exempt from bargaining council collective agreements for their first two years of operation. The CCMA would gain authority to publish and apply its own facilitation rules independently of ministerial regulations. Deferred payments, including retirement fund contributions, would be excluded from national minimum wage calculations following the Labour Appeal Court’s ruling in Quantum Foods.
What happens next
The bills are expected to be formally introduced to Parliament, where a further round of public participation will take place through the relevant parliamentary portfolio committee. No confirmed timeline has been announced for parliamentary deliberation or a target date for enactment.
The parental leave provisions carry the most immediate urgency. The Constitutional Court’s interim order from October 2025 is already in force, meaning all employers are currently required to comply with the unified four-month-and-ten-day shared parental leave framework. The legislation, once enacted, would make these provisions permanent and align the UIA benefits structure accordingly.
Several of the proposed changes attracted divergent positions during NEDLAC negotiations. While organised business, organised labour and government reached consensus on institutional reforms affecting the Labour Court and the CCMA, a number of substantive provisions, including the severance pay increase and the new R1.8 million dismissal compensation cap, remain potentially contentious as they move through Parliament.
Employers are advised by multiple legal firms, including Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, DLA Piper and Webber Wentzel, to begin reviewing employment contracts, updating leave policies, modelling future severance cost implications and strengthening compliance procedures in anticipation of the reforms, even while the final legislative text remains subject to change.
The Department of Employment and Labour stated when publishing the bills that the proposed changes aim to modernise key labour laws and introduce practical measures to improve job security, promote fairness and extend fundamental rights to vulnerable and previously excluded categories of workers.
