7 min read
Can you suspend an employee while you investigate? The rules that keep a precautionary suspension fair
Suspending an employee while you investigate misconduct is often the right call — but 'precautionary' has a precise meaning. Get the pay, the reason, or the duration wrong and the suspension becomes an unfair labour practice, entirely separate from the dismissal case you were building.
Read note5 min read
The new BCEA earnings threshold (R269 600.90): what it means for your small business
From 1 May 2026 the BCEA earnings threshold is R269 600.90 a year. Employees earning above it fall outside certain working-time protections — here is what changed, who it affects, and what stays the same.
Read note6 min read
Can you dismiss an employee on probation? What GN 3470 actually requires
Probation does not mean you can dismiss at will. The Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (GN 3470) sets out exactly what a fair probation dismissal looks like in South Africa — and most small businesses get it wrong.
Read note6 min read
Two CCMA cases, opposite outcomes: why the investigation decides
Two South African employers faced similar workplace-bullying dismissals. One paid R1.7 million; the other paid nothing. The difference came down to how they ran the investigation.
Read note7 min read
How long does a written warning last? Progressive discipline and the expired-warning trap
Verbal warnings, written warnings, final warnings — South African employers hand them out, file them, and forget them. Then they dismiss an employee on the strength of a warning that expired months earlier, and the CCMA treats the employee as having a clean record. Here is how warning validity actually works.
Read note7 min read
The hearing is not a formality: how to run a disciplinary enquiry that survives the CCMA
A solid investigation and a correctly served 48-hour notice still lose at the CCMA if the hearing itself is run as a rubber stamp. The chairperson, the order of proceedings, and the gap between finding guilt and deciding sanction are where most procedural cases quietly fall apart.
Read note7 min read
The investigation nobody documents: the step that wins or loses your case before the hearing starts
The Code of Good Practice says a misconduct investigation does not have to be formal — and small employers hear that as 'optional'. It is not. The investigation is where you decide whether you even have a case, and where most CCMA losses are quietly set up weeks before the hearing.
Read note6 min read
The 48-hour rule: why 'reasonable notice' sinks more dismissals than you think
The '48-hour rule' for a disciplinary hearing notice is not actually written into the Code of Good Practice. The CCMA treats it as the working floor — and small employers who treat it as a target rather than a minimum lose their cases on procedure.
Read note6 min read
CCMA awards in 2025: how much can an employer actually lose?
CCMA arbitrators can award up to 12 months' salary for unfair dismissal and 24 months for automatically unfair dismissal. Here is what drives the number up — and what keeps it down.
Read note5 min read
Schedule 8 is gone: What SA employers need to know about GN 3470
The Code of Good Practice: Dismissal was republished as a standalone instrument in September 2025. Schedule 8 of the LRA no longer exists. Here is what changed and what it means for your disciplinary process.
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