Schedule 8 is gone: What SA employers need to know about GN 3470

· 5 min read

If you have ever had to discipline an employee in South Africa, you have probably heard of Schedule 8. For decades, Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 was the reference point for dismissal procedure — the document that told employers how to run a fair hearing, what progressive discipline looks like, and what the CCMA would measure you against.

As of 4 September 2025, Schedule 8 no longer exists as a legal instrument.

The Department of Employment and Labour republished the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal as a standalone General Notice — GN 3470, published in Government Gazette 53294. The content of the Code is substantively the same, but the instrument itself has moved. It is no longer an appendix to the LRA. It stands alone.

This matters more than it might sound.

Why the change matters for employers

Every disciplinary document your business generates — charge sheets, notices of hearing, outcome letters, certificates of service — should cite the legal authority it is issued under. If your templates or your labour consultant's templates still say "in terms of Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act," they are citing a superseded instrument.

In a CCMA arbitration, citing an obsolete legal reference is not automatically fatal to your case. But it is the kind of procedural sloppiness that erodes credibility with an arbitrator. When you are trying to prove that your disciplinary process was meticulous and legally sound, having the wrong instrument reference on your paperwork works against you.

The correct citation going forward is:

Code of Good Practice: Dismissal, GN 3470, Government Gazette 53294, 4 September 2025

What the Code still requires

The substantive requirements for a fair dismissal have not changed. What GN 3470 demands is what Schedule 8 always demanded — but now under its own authority rather than as a legislative appendix.

Procedural fairness requires that before dismissing an employee for misconduct, you must:

  • Give the employee at least 48 hours' written notice of the hearing, with the specific charges stated clearly in language the employee can understand
  • Ensure the hearing is chaired by someone who was not involved in the incident — an impartial chairperson
  • Allow the employee the right to be represented by a fellow employee or shop steward
  • Record written minutes of the proceedings
  • Communicate the outcome in writing

Substantive fairness requires that there is a valid reason for the dismissal — related to the employee's conduct, their capacity, or the operational requirements of the business — and that the sanction is appropriate to the offence and the circumstances.

Neither of these tests has changed. What has changed is where the authority lives.

Progressive discipline still applies

The Code continues to require that employers approach misconduct through a progressive discipline lens. This means that for most offences, a first transgression warrants a verbal warning, a second a written warning, a third a final written warning, and only a repeated or sufficiently serious offence justifies dismissal.

Warning periods matter here. Verbal warnings expire after three months. Written warnings expire after six months. Final written warnings expire after twelve months. An expired warning cannot be used to escalate discipline — if you dismiss an employee partly on the basis of a warning that lapsed eight months ago, you are on shaky procedural ground.

The exception is gross misconduct — theft, physical assault, dishonesty, wilful damage to property, being under the influence of intoxicating substances on duty. These can justify summary dismissal on a first offence, provided the hearing procedure is still followed correctly.

The documents the CCMA will ask for

If a dismissed employee refers an unfair dismissal dispute to the CCMA, the arbitrator will expect to see a complete procedural trail. The documents that form that trail are:

  1. The notice of investigation (if one was issued)
  2. The notice of hearing — dated, with the 48-hour gap clearly evidenced
  3. The charge sheet with specific charges
  4. The chairperson's minutes
  5. The outcome letter
  6. Proof of service — signed acknowledgement or certificate of service

If any of these are missing, the employer's procedural case weakens significantly. CCMA default awards for automatically unfair dismissal run from three months' salary up to 24 months. For ordinary unfair dismissal, arbitrators typically award between three and twelve months. The November 2025 Lewis v Van de Venter Mojapelo award came in at R310,571 — for a business that almost certainly believed the dismissal was justified on the merits.

Merits are not enough. The procedure has to hold up too.

What most small businesses get wrong

The most common procedural failures we see are not deliberate — they are the result of employers who genuinely believed they were doing it right:

The WhatsApp dismissal. An employee is told their employment is terminated via a text message or a phone call. There is no hearing, no charge sheet, no notice period. This is automatically unfair in virtually all circumstances.

The heard-your-side shortcut. The employer calls the employee in, tells them the allegation, lets them speak, and then issues the dismissal the same day. This collapses the investigation and the hearing into a single informal conversation. The 48-hour notice requirement exists precisely to give the employee time to prepare a defence.

The unsigned outcome letter. The employer holds a proper hearing but never puts the outcome in writing, or issues a verbal warning with no written record. Oral warnings are not enforceable in the same way, and an arbitrator will note their absence.

The expired warning escalation. The employer relies on a warning from two years ago to justify moving straight to dismissal. The warning has long since expired and cannot be used.

The wrong chairperson. The employee's direct line manager — who reported the incident, conducted the investigation, and is a witness to the events — chairs the hearing. This fails the impartiality requirement.

The one citation that protects you

Every disciplinary document your business generates should reference the correct instrument. Not Schedule 8. Not "company policy" in isolation. The current authority is:

Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (GN 3470, GG 53294, 4 September 2025)

If your templates still say Schedule 8, update them now. If your labour consultant's templates still say Schedule 8, ask them to update theirs. If you are not sure what your templates say, check before the next time you need to use them — not during a CCMA arbitration.

CasePilot generates all disciplinary documents under the correct GN 3470 citation, enforces the 48-hour hearing notice window automatically, and assembles your full CCMA bundle in one click. Start a free 7-day trial — no credit card required.

← Back to all posts