Labour Relations Act, evidenced before the CCMA asks
At the CCMA the employer carries the onus of proving a dismissal was fair, in substance and in procedure. That is an evidence problem long before it is a legal one. Dimeri holds the process, the dates and the documents against the obligation they answer.
What the LRA requires
The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 gives effect to the labour rights in section 23 of the Constitution. It governs freedom of association and organisational rights, collective bargaining and bargaining councils, strikes and lockouts, workplace forums, and unfair dismissal and unfair labour practice. Disputes go to the CCMA or an accredited bargaining council, and from there to the Labour Court.
For most employers the operative part is dismissal. Section 185 gives every employee the right not to be unfairly dismissed, and section 188 sets the test: the dismissal must be for a fair reason related to conduct, capacity or operational requirements, and a fair procedure must have been followed. Schedule 8, the Code of Good Practice on Dismissal, sets out what fair procedure means in practice, and the CCMA applies it closely.
Two other areas carry real exposure. Section 189 governs dismissal for operational requirements and prescribes a consultation process with defined disclosure and timing, with section 189A adding further requirements for larger retrenchments. And organisational rights under Chapter III determine what a representative union may demand, including access, deductions and time off. In both, the failure is almost always procedural and almost always about records: who was consulted, when, what was disclosed and what was considered.
The obligations Dimeri tracks
Dimeri holds LRA obligations as process with dates and evidence, because that is what an arbitrator tests.
Discipline and dismissal
A fair reason related to conduct or capacity, and a fair procedure, both of which the employer must be able to prove.
- Disciplinary matters logged with dates and stages
- Notice, representation and hearing records held
- Outcome and sanction recorded with reasons
- Consistency checked against prior comparable outcomes
Retrenchment consultation
Consultation with the required parties, on the prescribed topics, with the information the section obliges the employer to disclose.
- Consultation timeline with participants and dates
- Disclosure pack recorded against the section
- Alternatives considered and the response to proposals
- Selection criteria recorded and applied consistently
Organisational rights
Rights available to representative trade unions, including access, deduction of subscriptions, leave for office bearers and disclosure of information.
- Union recognition and representativity recorded
- Rights granted held with their conditions
- Collective agreements with expiry and review dates
- Requests and responses logged with dates
Strikes, lockouts and disputes
Procedural requirements before protected industrial action, and the referral routes for disputes of right and of interest.
- Dispute register with referral dates and forum
- Certificates of outcome held with the matter
- Picketing rules and agreements recorded
- Essential and maintenance service designations tracked
CCMA and review
Referral timeframes, conciliation and arbitration, and the narrow grounds on which an award may be reviewed.
- Referral deadlines tracked with escalation
- Evidence bundle assembled from existing records
- Award outcomes recorded with any compliance steps
- Patterns across matters surfaced for management
Policy and consistency
Disciplinary codes and procedures maintained, communicated, and applied consistently, since inconsistency is a common route to an unfair finding.
- Disciplinary code held with version and review date
- Acknowledgement tracked to the individual
- Sanction consistency reviewed across similar cases
- Manager training recorded against the policy
How Dimeri covers LRA
Dismissal disputes are lost on process and on records, not usually on the merits. Dimeri is built around that.
The onus is on you, so the file must exist
Section 192 places the onus on the employer to prove fairness. Every stage, notice, hearing, representation and outcome is recorded with its date as it happens, so the bundle is assembled rather than reconstructed months later.
Consistency visible across cases
Inconsistent sanctions for comparable misconduct is one of the most reliable ways to lose at arbitration. Holding outcomes in one register makes the comparison possible before the decision, not after the award.
Section 189 with its clock
Retrenchment consultation has prescribed content and timing. The process runs with dates, participants and disclosure recorded against the section, so a procedural challenge has an answer.
One register with BCEA and EEA
Employment obligations overlap heavily. Working time and leave under the BCEA, equity reporting under the EEA and discipline under the LRA share the same employee records and the same owners.
Getting LRA coverage in place
- 1
Load the policy set
The disciplinary code, grievance procedure and any collective agreements are held with version numbers, review dates and acknowledgement records, since an unacknowledged code is hard to enforce.
- 2
Put process behind the events
Disciplinary matters, grievances and disputes are captured with their stages, dates and participants, so the record builds as the matter runs rather than afterwards.
- 3
Track referrals and deadlines
CCMA and bargaining council referrals carry statutory timeframes. Those are tracked with escalation ahead of the date rather than discovered after it.
- 4
Review the pattern
Outcomes, sanctions and dispute causes are reviewed across the organisation, which is where consistency problems and recurring management failures become visible.
LRA questions
Who has to prove a dismissal was fair?
The employer. Section 192 provides that once the employee establishes the existence of a dismissal, the employer must prove it was fair. That makes the quality of the record decisive: if the process happened but was not documented, proving it at arbitration months later is difficult.
What makes a dismissal procedurally unfair?
Schedule 8, the Code of Good Practice on Dismissal, sets the expectations: an investigation, notice of the allegations in a form the employee can understand, a reasonable opportunity to respond with assistance, and a decision communicated with reasons. Arbitrators apply it closely, and most procedural findings turn on a missing step or a missing record rather than on bad faith.
Does Dimeri handle retrenchment consultation?
It tracks the process: who was consulted, when, what was disclosed, what alternatives were proposed and how the employer responded, and the selection criteria applied. Section 189 prescribes both content and sequence, and a procedural challenge almost always targets one of those.
Can this replace our labour lawyer?
No. Dismissal disputes turn on legal judgement about fairness. What Dimeri does is make sure the record supporting that judgement exists, with its dates and authors, so your advisers work from evidence rather than recollection.
Is this a substitute for legal advice?
No. This page describes how Dimeri structures LRA obligations for tracking and evidence. Your labour law advisers should confirm what applies to your workplace and to any specific matter.
Put LRA on one register
Every requirement mapped to a control with a named owner, the evidence held against it, and one view of where you stand.