- An employee is defined as "any person, excluding an independent contractor, who works for another person or for the State and who receives, or is entitled to receive, any remuneration" (sec. 1 BCEA and 213 LRA).
- The LRA which regulates unfair dismissal applies to all employers and employees in both the public and the private sectors, with the exception of members of the National Defence Force, the National Intelligence Agency and the South African Secret Service (sec. 2, LRA). The BCEA contains a similar exclusion but also excludes unpaid volunteers working for charitable organizations and merchant seamen (except for the provision on severance pay). These are protected against unfair dismissal under the LRA.
- The specific provisions on the BCEA on termination of employment (i.e notice, severance pay) do not apply to employees who work less than 24 hours in a month for a employer.

There are no provisions in the LRA on the conditions for concluding FTCs. However, renewals of FTCs are dealt with in relation to the definition of dismissal (sec. 186 (1) b) "Dismissal means that an employee reasonably expected the employer to renew a fixed term contract of employment on the same or similar terms but the employer offered to renew it on less favourable terms, or did not renew it".

No statutory limitation.

No maximum number specified in the legislation. However, under the LRA an employer who fails to renew a fixed-term contract, when a 'reasonable expectation' that it will be renewed is held by the employee, is deemed to have dismissed the employee.

No statutory limitation.

No maximum duration specified in the legislation.
The probationary period may be negotiated and stipulated in the contract of employment. The Code of Good Practices on dismissal contained in schedule 8 of the LRA stipulates that the probationary period must be of a reasonable duration determined in advance with reference to the nature of the job and the time it takes to determine the employee's suitability for continued employment. (see sec. 8 (1) of the Code).

The LRA provides that a dismissal is automatically unfair if the reason for the dismissal is one that amounts to an infringement of the fundamental rights of employees and trade unions (i.e trade union or workplace forum membership or activities), or if the reason is one of those listed in section 187. These are:
* participation in, support to, or intention to support a lawful strike
* the employee refused to do any work normally done by an employee who is participating in a lawful strike unless the work is necessary to prevent an actual danger to life, personal safety or health,
* compelling an employee to accept a demand concerning a matter of mutual interest between the employer and employee;
* the exercise of a right under the LRA, or participation in any labour proceedings;
* pregnancy or maternity; or
* unfair discrimination based on any arbitrary ground, including but not limited to race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, political opinion, culture, language, marital status or family responsibility unless the reason for dismissal is based on an inherent requirement of the particular job;
* dismissal based on age, unless the employee has reached the normal or agreed retirement age for employees in that capacity;
* a transfer, or a reason related to a transfer of contract of employment contemplated in section 197 or 197A LRA; or
* a contravention of the Protected Disclosures Act, 2000, by the employer, on account of an employee having made a protected disclosure defined in that Act.

Protection only applicable to disciplinary dismissals:
According to sec. 4(2) of the Code of Good Practices, disciplinary proceedings against a trade union representative should not be instituted without first informing and consulting the trade union.

See sec. 37(4) BCEA: Notice of termination must be given in writing and explained orally to an employee who is not able to understand it.

Sec. 37(1) BCEA establishes minimum notice periods to be observed by the employer when he or she intends to dismiss an employee, as follows:
- 1 week's notice if the employee has been employed for 6 months or less,
- 2 week's notice if the employee has been employed for more than 6 months but not more than 1 year;
- 4 weeks if the employee has been employed for one year or more (or is a farm or domestic workers employed for more than 6 months)
Collective agreements only provide shorter notice periods than those stipulated by the BCEA for workers with more than 1 year of service. In such cases, the notice period can be reduced to 2 weeks (sec. 37(2) BCEA).

On the definition of operational requirements, see sec. 213 LRA.
Sec 189 LRA applies to dismissals based on operational requirements of one or more employees.
Sec. 189 LRA applies to dismissals based on operational requirements if the employers has more than 50 employees.

Prior to any dismissal based on operational requirements no matter the number of employees concerned, consultation with
trade unions and/or the workplace forum is mandatory. If there is no workplace forum or trade union, consultation shall take place with employees' representatives nominated for that purpose.
The employer and the consulting party must engage in a meaningful joint consensus-seeking process and try to reach consensus on appropriate measures to avoid/minimise dismissals, change the timing of dismissals or mitigate their adverse effects, the method for selecting employees to be dismissed and severance pay for dismissed employees. The employer must consider and respond to the representations made by other consulting parties and, if the employer does not agree with them, the employer must state the reasons for disagreeing (see sec. 189(1), (5) and (6) LRA).

The employer is not requested to notify the labour administration when contemplating dismissals based on operational requirements.
However, there is a specific procedure foreseen for collective dismissals applicable to employers with more than 50 employees, according to which the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration which is an independent tripartite body shall appoint a facilitator if requested by the employer or employee's representatives (sec. 189A LRA).

Prior to any dismissal based on operational requirements no matter the number of employees concerned, consultation with
trade unions and/or the workplace forum mandatory. If there is no workplace forum or trade union, consultation shall take place with employee's representatives nominated for that purpose (see sec. 189(1) LRA).
The employer is obliged to disclose in writing all relevant information for the purpose of consultation (e.g. reasons for dismissal, alternatives to dismissals, number of employees affected, period during which the proposed dismissals are to occur, proposed method of selecting employees, assistance which may be rendered by the employer to the employees, possibilities of future employment). The employer must also allow employees to respond, and in turn reply to the response of the workers' representatives to these issues (see sec. 189(1) LRA) (sec. 189 (3),(5), (6) LRA)

No list of selection criteria in the LRA.
Selection criteria are mentioned in sec. 189 LRA as one of the elements on which the parties must attempt to reach consensus during the consultation process. If they have not been agreed to by the parties, the employer must follow fair and objective criteria.

See sec. 189(2)a), (3)b) LRA: The employer and the consulting party must engage in a meaningful joint consensus-seeking process and try to reach consensus on appropriate measures to avoid/minimise dismissals, change the timing of dismissals or mitigate their adverse affects.
The employer must provide information to the consulting party on the alternatives the employer considered before proposing the dismissals and the reasons for rejecting each of those alternatives. A consulting party may not unreasonably refuse to extend the period for consultation if such an extension is required to ensure meaningful consultation.

There is no general right to severance pay following a fair dismissal. Severance pay is required by the BCEA (sec. 41) and the LRA (sec 196) only where the termination is for operational requirements of the enterprise, meaning requirements based on the economic, technological, structural or similar needs of an employer [covered below under "redundancy pay"]

Severance pay is required by the BCEA (sec. 41) and the LRA (sec 196) only where the termination is for operational requirements of the enterprise, meaning requirements based on the economic, technological, structural or similar needs of an employer. [= redundancy pay]. It shall amount to at least one week's remuneration for each completed year of continuous service with that employer.
This rate may be adjusted by the Minister from time to time after consultation with the competent bodies (NEDLAC and the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council).
Note that an employee who unreasonably refuses an offer of alternative employment loses his/her right to statutory redundancy pay.
Contracts of employment and collective agreements may provide for higher levels of redundancy pay.

See sec. 194 LRA.

Sec. 194 LRA.

Sec. 193(1) a) and (2) LRA.
Reinstatement or re-employment is mandatory unless:
(a)the employee does not wish to be reinstated or re-employed;
(b)the circumstances surrounding the dismissal are such that a continued employment relationship would be intolerable;
(c)it is not reasonably practicable for the employer to reinstate or re-employ the employee; or
(d)the dismissal is unfair only because the employer did not follow a fair procedure.

Pursuant to sec. 191 LRA, within 30 days of the date of the dismissal, the employee may refer the dispute about the fairness of the dismissal to a special bargaining council or to the Commission for conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, if no council has jurisdiction which must attempt to resolve the dispute through conciliation. If the council or the Commission does not succeed in resolving the dispute through conciliation, it is referred to arbitration by the Commission or adjudication by the Labour Court depending on the nature of the dispute (see below).

The LRA establishes an independent, tripartite Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) [see below] and a Labour Court (Chapter VII of the LRA) which both have jurisdiction over disputes of unfair dismissals depending on the nature of those dismissals (see sec. 191 (5) LRA.
If conciliation fails, the dispute will be referred to the Labour Court for adjudication if the employee has alleged that the reasons for dismissal is: (i) automatically unfair (see prohibited grounds); (ii) based on the employer's operational requirements (includes economic reasons); (iii) the employee's participation in a strike; or (iv) because the employee refused to join, was refused membership of or was expelled from a trade union party to a closed shop agreement.

In addition, sec. 191(6) LRA states that the director must refer the dispute to the Labour Court, if the director decides, on application by any party to the dispute, that to be appropriate after considering-
(a) the reason for dismissal;
(b) whether there are questions of law raised by the dispute;
(c) the complexity of the dispute;
(d) whether there are conflicting arbitration awards that need to be resolved;
(e) the public interest.

In the case of dismissals adjudicated by the Labour Court, an appeal against the decision of the Court is possible. Appeals from the Labour Court will be heard by the Labour Appeal Court.

Common law claims for breach of contract in the ordinary civil courts are also possible.

See sec. 191 5 (a) LRA on mandatory arbitration.
the bargaining council or CCMA for arbitration if (i) the employee has alleged that the reason for dismissal related to the employee's conduct or capacity, (ii) the employee has alleged that the reason for dismissal is that the employer made continued employment intolerable or the employer provided the employee with substantially less favourable conditions or circumstances at work after a transfer, (iii) the employee does not know the reason for dismissal; (iv) the dispute concerns an unfair labour practice.