Update : Labour Law Amendment Draft Bill 2025

The Department of Employment and Labour has published the Labour Law Amendment Draft Bill 2025 for public comment. The Bill seeks to amend the following pieces of legislation:

Basic Conditions of Employment Act:

• Substitute and insert certain definitions to permit sectoral determinations to apply to a broader category of employees.
• Provide minimum conditions of employment applicable to employees who are required to be available for work.
• Provide for parental leave in a manner consistent with the Constitution.
• Specify the severance pay that employees are entitled to and clarify the forum for resolving disputes about severance pay.
• Further specify procedures for the recovery of unpaid contributions to benefit funds.
• Further specify the powers of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to enforce compliance orders.
• Clarify the powers of bargaining councils to arbitrate disputes concerning basic conditions of employment; to empower the Minister to make regulations concerning the use of fines by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

Employment Equity Act:

1. Enable employees to refer any claim concerning unfair harassment to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
2. Specify the capacity of bargaining councils to resolve disputes arising under the Act.

Unemployment Insurance Act:

• To provide for payment of parental leave benefits by the Unemployment Insurance Fund in a manner consistent with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Constitution.

The National Minimum Wage Act:

• To clarify that deferred payments made to employees are not taken into account when calculating compliance with the national minimum wage.
• Alter the composition of the National Minimum Wage Commission.
• Require that representatives on the Commission have appropriate knowledge, skills, and experience to fulfil their duties.
• Remove the requirement that the President must determine the date for the Commission must submit its report to the Minister; and to provide for matters connected therewith. 

Members are requested to submit their comments to Mahlatse Mabila  at Mahlatse.Mabila@busa.org.za  by Friday,13 March 2026.