LRA Self-Assessment (Labour Relations)

1. Do you have a written disciplinary code and procedure that employees know about and that suits the size of your business?

(LRA s188, Code of Good Practice: Dismissal)

2. Do you use informal correction, such as counselling or a warning, for minor problems, and keep formal steps for serious or repeated ones?

The 2025 Code favours informal correction and progressive discipline, and says formal procedure need not follow every rule breach. (Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (2025))

3. Before disciplining or dismissing for misconduct, do you investigate, tell the employee what they are accused of, and give them a chance to respond, with a representative where your procedure allows it?

(LRA s188, Code of Good Practice: Dismissal)

4. Do you give the employee the decision and reasons in writing, and tell them how they can challenge it?

(LRA s188, Code of Good Practice: Dismissal)

5. When an employee's performance is below standard, do you set clear expectations, give them guidance or training, and a reasonable opportunity to improve before dismissing?

(Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (2025))

6. For incapacity (ill health, injury or incompatibility), do you investigate, consider alternatives to dismissal, and consult the employee first?

The 2025 Code now recognises incompatibility as a ground of incapacity. (Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (2025))

7. If you use probation, is its purpose and the assessment criteria (including suitability for the job) explained to the employee at the start?

(Code of Good Practice: Dismissal (2025))

8. Do you keep a record of every disciplinary warning, hearing and outcome?

(LRA s188)

1. Do you make sure nobody is dismissed, or treated worse, because of the reasons the Act treats as automatically unfair (for example exercising a right under the Act, pregnancy, union membership, unfair discrimination, or making a protected disclosure)?

(LRA s187)

2. Are decisions on promotion, demotion, probation, training, benefits, suspension and discipline short of dismissal made fairly and for recorded reasons?

(LRA s186(2))

3. If you suspend an employee, do you do it only where it is justified, and for as short a time as the matter needs?

(LRA s186(2))

1. Before retrenching, do you look at alternatives to dismissal and have a genuine operational reason (economic, technological, structural or similar)?

(LRA s189, Code of Good Practice: Dismissal)

2. Do you consult the employees affected (and their union, if any) and give them written notice of the possible dismissals and the reasons?

(LRA s189(3))

3. Are selection criteria fair and objective, and do you pay at least one week's severance for each completed year of service?

(LRA s189, BCEA s41)

4. If you employ 50 or more people and plan a large-scale retrenchment, do you follow the extra process (a 60-day period from the s189(3) notice before notices of termination are issued)?

Large-scale retrenchment rules apply to employers with 50 or more employees. Without a facilitator, the process is a 30-day consultation period and then a 30-day conciliation period. (LRA s189A)

1. If you use fixed-term contracts of more than three months, do you have a justifiable reason for the fixed term (such as limited or definite duration of the work), and is it recorded in the contract?

(LRA s198B)

2. Are fixed-term employees (beyond three months) treated no less favourably than comparable permanent employees doing the same or similar work, unless there is a justifiable reason?

(LRA s198B)

3. If you use a temporary employment service (labour broker), do you make sure placements are genuinely temporary, because after three months an employee not doing temporary service is treated as your employee?

Doing the same duties for a long period is a sign the work is not temporary, and ending placements to avoid the three-month rule can itself be an unfair dismissal. (LRA s198A)

4. Do you check that your labour broker is compliant with the Act, since you can be jointly responsible for its failures?

(LRA s198)

1. Do you respect the organisational rights of any registered, representative union at your workplace (such as access, stop-order deductions and time off for representatives)?

(LRA Chapter III)

2. Do you keep your collective agreements, and apply the ones that bind you, such as bargaining council agreements for your sector?

(LRA Chapter III)

3. If you employ more than 100 people, have you considered whether a workplace forum should be established if the union or employees ask for one?

(LRA Chapter V)

4. Do you handle strikes, protest action and lockouts only through the processes in the Act (for example notice and conciliation before a strike or lockout)?

(LRA Chapter IV)

1. Do you know that employees can refer a dismissal dispute to the CCMA or a bargaining council, and do you respond to referrals and attend conciliation?

A dismissal dispute must be referred within 30 days of the dismissal, and an unfair labour practice dispute within 90 days. If it stays unresolved after conciliation, a further referral window of 90 days applies after the certificate is issued. (LRA s191)

2. Do you make sure nobody is victimised for using their rights under the Act, including joining a union or referring a dispute?

(LRA s5)