Reform Area: Labour reforms2026 - 2027

Labour reforms took a major step forward in 2025, with wide-ranging proposals published in the Final Nedlac Report on the Labour Law Reform Process, followed by the Department of Employment and Labour proposing more than 60 amendments to labour laws. These will require amendments to four acts: 47 amendments to the Labour Relations Act, 13 to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, two to the National Minimum Wage Act and three to the Employment Equity Act.

Within these, there are four broad categories of reform areas: i) reforms to ease pressures on small businesses; ii) reforms to make it easier to hire and fire workers; iii) reforms to retrenchment processes, including doubling the payout amounts; and iv) strengthening the rights of gig workers.

This process in the culmination of a process that began in 2021, when business and organised labour tabled proposals for labour law reform at Nedlac. In March 2022, Government also tabled proposals. These reforms are at a very early stage and still have to pass state legal vetting, Cabinet approval and parliamentary processes inclduing public consultation. Not all Nedlac parties approved all the amendments, so these processes are not likely to be smooth sailing.

However, one set of reforms has already advanced: the minister of employment and labour has published the 2025 Code of Good Practice on Dismissal, effective from 4 September 2025. The publication of the Code repeals the previous Schedule 8 Code of Good Practice on Dismissal and the Code of Good Practice Based on Operational Requirements.

The details of each category are tracked in the following reform deliverables:
Labour law amendments: small businesses
Labour law amendments: Code of Good Practice on Dismissals
Labour law amendments: retrenchments
Labour law amendments: gig workers