Most employers will be aware that changes to our existing labour laws have been proposed for a long time now. Some may not yet have responded to the challenges of the proposed changes because this debate about labour law reform has, after all, been on-going since the ANC elective manifesto of 2009. However, it now seems that the amendments are not far off and this article serves to place in context the immanency of the new labour laws.

The parliamentary process

In the first place, one has to broadly understand that new legislation or amendments to existing legislation (called ‘Bills’), such as the proposed changes to existing labour laws, follows the Parliamentary law-making process enshrined in our Constitution, whereby it is firstly put before the National Assembly (‘NA’) and, following various committee deliberations, public hearings and debate, is then voted on by MP’s in the NA. If the law (or Bill) is passed, it moves to the National Council of Provinces (‘NCOP’) where it is again subject to a public participatory process, debated and then voted on by the NCOP. The NCOP can pass the law, reject the law, or pass the law with its own further proposed amendments. If the NCOP passes the law, the law is submitted to the President for assent. If the NCOP rejects or passes the law with amendments, the NA must then reconsider the law and pass it again, either with or without the NCOP’s suggested amendments. After reconsideration, if the NA passes the law, it is submitted to the President for assent. A law assented to by the President comes into effect when published or, usually, on a date fixed by the President.

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