How to use this
Terms are listed alphabetically. Where a term carries a figure, the figure is the current one and the date it took effect is given, because almost every number in this field changes annually.
Figures last reviewed 9 September 2026.
The terms
- Bargaining council
- A body established by employers and unions in a sector to set terms for that sector. Where the Minister extends its main agreement to non-parties, it binds employers who never joined it — overriding the Basic Conditions of Employment Act floor on wages, hours and benefits. Twenty-one national councils were registered as at November 2025.
- Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA)
- The Act that sets the minimum terms of employment: hours, overtime, leave, notice, severance, written particulars, records and payslips. Much of its hours chapter switches off above the earnings threshold.
- CCMA
- The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. It conciliates and arbitrates most employment disputes at no filing cost. An unfair-dismissal referral must be made within 30 days of the dismissal.
- Casual worker
- Not a legal category. The only statutory line is 24 hours a month: below it the BCEA chapters on hours, leave and written particulars fall away and the Unemployment Insurance Fund does not apply. The minimum wage, the four-hour minimum and unfair-dismissal protection still do. See part-time and casual work.
- Code of Good Practice
- Guidance issued under the Labour Relations Act or the Employment Equity Act which a tribunal must take into account. Not a statute, but in practice the standard against which fairness is measured. The Dismissal Code of 2025 and the Harassment Code of 2022 are the two that matter most here.
- Comparable full-time employee
- The yardstick for part-time equal treatment: someone paid by reference to time worked who is identifiable as full-time by the employer’s custom and practice, doing the same or similar work, in the same workplace if possible.
- Connected person
- A tax concept. For the personal-service-provider test it covers the owner of the company or trust, their relatives, and entities they control. If a connected person does the work personally, the test proceeds; if not, it stops.
- Deemed employee (SARS)
- A person who is a contractor at common law but whom the Fourth Schedule treats as an employee for pay-as-you-earn — typically because the work must be done mainly at the client’s premises under the client’s control as to manner or hours. Reported under IRP5 code 3616. The limitation on employees’ deductions does not apply to them.
- Deemed indefinite
- What the Labour Relations Act does to a fixed-term contract concluded or renewed in breach of the three-month rule: the job becomes permanent by operation of law, whatever the document says. See fixed-term contracts.
- Dependent contractor
- A proposed category, not current law. The Labour Relations Amendment Bill of 2025 would extend certain rights to people who fall outside the definition of employee but are not genuinely in business for themselves. The Department expects promulgation in 2028.
- Designated employer
- An employer with 50 or more employees, or an organ of state, municipality or employer designated by a collective agreement. The turnover test was repealed with effect from 1 January 2025. Designated employers must consult, analyse, plan, report annually and meet sectoral targets.
- Dominant impression test
- The common-law approach to employee status: weigh the whole relationship rather than any single feature, and have regard to the realities rather than the label. The Labour Appeal Court reduces it to three primary criteria — supervision and control, integration into the organisation, and economic dependence.
- Earnings threshold
- The figure the Minister determines under section 6(3) of the BCEA: currently R269 600,90 a year from 1 May 2026. It gates the presumption of employment and the fixed-term, part-time and labour-broker protections. Earnings means regular annual remuneration before deductions, excluding employer contributions, subsistence and transport allowances, achievement awards and overtime. See the earnings threshold.
- Employee
- Under the Labour Relations Act, any person other than an independent contractor who works for another and receives or is entitled to receive remuneration, plus anyone who in any manner assists in carrying on the business. It does not depend on a valid contract.
- Employer of record
- A commercial term, not a statutory one, for a business that employs staff on another business’s behalf. In South African law it is usually a temporary employment service, with the three-month deeming rule that goes with it.
- Fixed-term contract
- A contract that ends on a specified event, the completion of a specified task or project, or a fixed date other than retirement age. Below the threshold it may not run beyond three months without a justifiable reason recorded in writing.
- Independent contractor
- Excluded from the definition of employee, but nowhere defined in the Act. At common law a contractor undertakes to produce a result, is their own master, may usually perform through others, and carries their own risk.
- IRP30
- A certificate of exemption issued by SARS to a labour broker that carries on an independent trade and is compliant. Without it, payments to the broker are subject to employees’ tax.
- IRP5 code 3616
- The code under which remuneration paid to an independent contractor who is a deemed employee is reported. It signals that pay-as-you-earn was withheld but that the person is a contractor at common law, so their deductions are not limited as an employee’s would be.
- Justifiable reason
- The reason an employer must have and record in writing to fix a term beyond three months below the threshold. The Act lists nine, including covering an absence, a temporary spike of under twelve months, a student or graduate gaining experience, a defined project, a work permit, seasonal work and past retirement age.
- Labour broker / temporary employment service
- Anyone who, for reward, procures for or provides to a client people who work for the client and are paid by the service. The service is the employer — until a below-threshold placement outlasts a temporary service, when the client becomes the sole employer. See labour brokers and secondment.
- Learnership
- A three-way agreement between a learner, an employer and a skills development provider accredited by the QCTO, in the prescribed form and registered with a SETA. A learner who was not already employed also needs a contract of employment.
- National minimum wage
- Currently R30,23 an hour for each ordinary hour worked, from 1 March 2026, with farm and domestic workers at the same rate and expanded public works at R16,62. It cannot be waived and it overrides any contrary contract, collective agreement or sectoral determination.
- NEDLAC
- The National Economic Development and Labour Council, where government, business and labour negotiate labour legislation and issue Codes of Good Practice before they are gazetted.
- Operational requirements
- The economic, technological, structural or similar needs of an employer — the lawful basis for a retrenchment. Above fifty employees the sliding scale in section 189A adds facilitation and a sixty-day minimum process.
- Part-time employee
- Someone paid by reference to time worked who works fewer hours than a comparable full-timer. Below the threshold, at an employer with ten or more staff, after three months they must be treated on the whole no less favourably.
- PAYE
- Pay-as-you-earn: employees’ tax withheld from remuneration and paid over monthly. Registration with SARS is due within 21 business days of becoming an employer.
- Personal service provider
- A company or trust whose work is done personally by a connected person and which meets one of three limbs — the person would be an employee if engaged directly, the work is mainly at the client’s premises under its control, or more than 80% of service income comes from one client — unless it employs three or more unconnected full-time staff. The client withholds at 27%, or 45% for a trust. See the personal service provider test.
- Presumption of employment
- The rule in section 200A of the Labour Relations Act and section 83A of the BCEA: below the threshold, any one of seven listed factors presumes the person is an employee, regardless of the form of the contract, and the engager must prove otherwise.
- Probation
- A period at the start of employment for the employer to evaluate performance and suitability before confirming the appointment. Under the 2025 Dismissal Code it must be fixed in advance and reasonable, the employee must be given guidance, and no decision to dismiss or extend may be taken without hearing them first.
- Restraint of trade
- A clause restricting a person’s work after the relationship ends. Enforceable unless the person resisting it shows it is unreasonable and contrary to public policy. See restraints, confidentiality and IP.
- Sectoral determination
- A ministerial instrument setting terms for a sector that has little collective bargaining — domestic work and farm work are the two that still matter, though their wage tables have been overtaken by the national minimum wage.
- SETA
- A Sector Education and Training Authority. Employers are classified into one on registering for the skills development levy, and learnerships are registered with the SETA that covers the sector.
- Skills development levy
- 1% of payroll, payable monthly with pay-as-you-earn, with an exemption where there are reasonable grounds to believe payroll will not exceed R500 000 over the next twelve months.
- UIF
- The Unemployment Insurance Fund. Contributions are 1% from the employee and 1% from the employer on remuneration up to R17 712 a month. Employees working fewer than 24 hours a month are excluded.
- Unfair dismissal
- A dismissal without a fair reason or a fair procedure. Compensation is capped at twelve months’ remuneration, or twenty-four where the dismissal is automatically unfair — for example, for pregnancy, union membership or a protected disclosure.
- Written particulars of employment
- The sixteen items an employer must give an employee in writing when they start, listed in section 29(1) of the BCEA. Three of them fall away below five employees. They must be revised whenever anything changes and kept three years after the employment ends. See the permanent employment contract.
The figures in one place
| Figure | Amount | From |
|---|---|---|
| Earnings threshold | R269 600,90 a year | 1 May 2026 |
| National minimum wage | R30,23 an hour | 1 March 2026 |
| Expanded public works rate | R16,62 an hour | 1 March 2026 |
| UIF ceiling | R17 712 a month | Unchanged since 1 June 2021 |
| Skills levy exemption | R500 000 of annual payroll | Standing |
| Compensation Fund earnings cap | R668 000 per employee | 1 March 2026 |
| VAT compulsory registration | R2 300 000 | 1 April 2026 |
| Designated employer | 50 employees | 1 January 2025 |
| Personal service provider withholding | 27% company / 45% trust | Standing |
Each figure’s Gazette reference is on the sources page, and the annual cycle is set out in what is changing.