RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN S.A. EMPLOYMENT LAW

Seat of Court: Labour Court, Johannesburg Date Delivered: 22 October 2026 Case No: JS140/25 Name of Judge(s): Maluleke AJ Factual Summary: The employee, Ms Ramphaka, referred a retrenchment dispute against Inclusion Consulting (Pty) Ltd and Leapfrog Investments Limited by way of a statement of claim. In an interlocutory judgment delivered on 8 June 2026 the Court granted her condonation for the late referral. The CCMA had issued only a jurisdictional ruling and had never dealt with the merits. After the hearing but before judgment, the employer had emailed an application to reopen the condonation proceedings directly to the presiding acting judge, without enrolment or allocation through the Registrar or the Judge President. The employer applied for leave to appeal against the condonation judgment on four grounds: the failure to deal with its pending application to adduce new evidence; the failure to consider certain periods of delay (two grounds); and the failure to consider prospe...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 22 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: 2026/242651 Name of Judge(s): Tlhotlhalemaje J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, the elected Regional Chairperson of NUMSA's Mpumalanga Region and thereby a member of its Central Committee, challenged a decision of the union's national office bearers. After a shop steward complained to the General Secretary that delegates to the Mpumalanga Regional Congress of June 2026 had not been elected in accordance with the union's constitution, the President announced by letter of 4 September 2026 that the Central Committee would reconvene without the Mpumalanga delegates exercising full participatory and voting rights until their constitutional status had been resolved. The Central Committee was due to resume on 23 to 25 October 2026, ahead of the National Congress. Under section 158(1)(e)(i) of the LRA the applicant sought, in Part A, an urgent interim interdict restraining NUMSA a...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 22 October 2026, Labour Appeal Court Case No: A2025/183459 Name of Judge(s): Gqamana AJA (Nkutha-Nkontwana JA and Masipa AJA concurring) Summary of Factual Matrix: In August 2020 Eskom advertised the post of Chief Advisor: Organisational Design and Workforce Planning, stipulating as minimum requirements a degree in Human Resources, Social Sciences or Behavioural Science at NQF 7 and seven years' relevant experience. The employee, who holds a BCom in Informatics and an LLB, applied but was excluded from the shortlist solely on the qualification requirement. He referred an unfair labour practice dispute relating to promotion to the CCMA, where the commissioner found that he met neither requirement and that no unfair labour practice had been committed. On an unopposed review, the Labour Court set the award aside and granted the employee compensation equal to six months' remuneration at G17 level. With leave of the Labour Appeal Court, Eskom...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: JR2372/23 Name of Judge(s): Mhambi AJ Summary of Factual Matrix: Ms Sicedile, a long-serving Engineering Foreman at Sasol's Thubelisha Colliery responsible for supervising a team performing underground electrical work, was charged with misconduct arising from events of 3 to 5 July 2022. She was found guilty of permitting high-risk work to proceed on 4 July 2022 without a lock-out (in breach of a life-saving safety rule) and of failing to ensure that a job safety analysis was in place, acquitted of a third charge, and dismissed. A CCMA commissioner, preferring the evidence of her line manager, found the dismissal procedurally and substantively fair. CEPPWAWU, on her behalf, applied under section 145 of the LRA to review the award, seeking substitution or remittal. It contended that the commissioner cited no authority, ought to have recused himself after allegedly disclosing a conversation w...

Seat of Court: Labour Court, Johannesburg Date Delivered: 21 October 2026 Case No: JR83/24 Name of Judge(s): Mhambi AJ Factual Summary: Mr Delport, represented by Solidarity, was charged by Stucky Motors with gross negligence and with insubordination in relation to the production of an IT Asset Register; he was acquitted of the first charge and dismissed on the second. A commissioner of the Motor Industries Bargaining Council upheld the dismissal, relying in part on uncharged incidents of 10 and 15 February 2023 arising from a dispute over sick leave. On 14 May 2026 the Labour Court reviewed and set aside the award, declared the dismissal substantively unfair and awarded compensation equal to six months' remuneration. Stucky Motors applied for leave to appeal, contending that the arbitration was a hearing de novo entitling the commissioner to consider the further incidents, that the Court had conducted an appeal in the guise of a review, that the order wrongly disturbed the fin...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: JR590/2024 Name of Judge(s): Maddern AJ Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, employed by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) since 2001, was placed on precautionary suspension on full pay on 1 August 2022. On 14 April 2023, while still suspended, he was notified that he had been discharged from the public service under section 17(3)(a)(i) of the Public Service Act for having been absent without authorisation since 1 August 2022. DIRCO contended that he had breached the terms of his suspension by being unreachable and failing to report for duty. He referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council. Upholding DIRCO's point in limine on written submissions alone, without hearing evidence, the commissioner ruled that the Council lacked jurisdiction because the termination had occurred by operation of law. The appli...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: JR331/2024 Name of Judge(s): Maddern AJ Summary of Factual Matrix: The two individual employees, processors with eight and ten years' service at the applicant's Rustenburg Base Metal Refiners, a high-risk facility, were working on cells in the Copper Tank House on 1 November 2022 when their supervisor, who was required to isolate the Centre Bay rectifier, locked out a different bay instead. The work area remained live and an arc flash burnt Mr Cimela's trousers. The supervisor was dismissed, and the employees were charged with failing to comply with the De-energise, Isolation, Lock-out and Permit to Work (DILEP) procedure, found guilty and dismissed. The applicant's own investigation revealed a practice on their shift of relying on the supervisor's lock-out and that the employees had received theoretical, but no practical, lock-out training. A CCMA commissioner found that t...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Durban Case No: D385/24 Name of Judge(s): Daniels J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, a Deputy Chief Education Specialist in the Eastern Cape Department of Education, had repeatedly acted as Chief Education Specialist: Curriculum Management between 2021 and 2024 under letters stating that acting created no right or expectation of promotion. When the post was advertised in 2023 she was shortlisted and interviewed, together with six others, by the same selection panel, but scored 59 per cent and was ranked fourth; the top-scoring candidate, the fifth respondent, was appointed. A 60 per cent threshold applied to senior appointments. The applicant referred an unfair labour practice dispute relating to promotion to the ELRC, contending that her acting experience made her the best candidate, that the panel was irregularly composed and unbalanced in race and gender, and that scoring was improperly used as the sole...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Cape Town Case No: 2026/219524 Name of Judge(s): Gandidze J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, a scaffolding subcontractor registered with the Building Industry Bargaining Council (Cape of Good Hope), was in arrears with benefit contributions when its employee, Mr Mshwadi, died in January 2025, so that the Fund declined his death and funeral benefits. The applicant contended that Mr Mshwadi had resigned before his death and, without the Council's involvement, settled with his nominated beneficiary for R65 000. The Council rejected the settlement and on 24 April 2026 issued a compliance order for the full death benefits and a penalty, which the applicant disputed; the dispute was referred to arbitration at the CCMA under the collective agreement. After the CCMA dismissed the applicant's jurisdictional point in limine on 30 July 2026, the Council, while the arbitration remained pending, marked the appl...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 20 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: 2026/255529 Name of Judge(s): Harvey J Summary of Factual Matrix: Seven members of NUMSA brought an urgent application against the union and its National Office Bearers for declaratory and mandatory relief concerning compliance with the union's constitution, the convening of its National Executive Committee, preparations for its National Congress (scheduled for 30 November to 4 December 2026) and the holding and funding of outstanding Regional Congresses. The application was uploaded to CaseLines on Wednesday 14 October 2026 for hearing on Tuesday 20 October; the applicants' own timetable contemplated answering and replying affidavits after the Thursday enrolment deadline. The answering affidavit was uploaded on the morning of Monday 19 October, and the replying affidavit and annexures, including a substantially revised draft order, by early that afternoon. The respondents objected tha...