The Effects of The Labour Relations Amendment Act.
In January 2015, the Labour Relations Amendment Act (No. 6 of 2014) came into effect. Section 198(b) of the aforesaid act has provided fixed term employees to enjoy far greater protection that in the past. Employees earning below the ‘threshold’, currently set at R205 433.30 per annum, may no longer be employed on a fixed term contract for longer than 3 months unless the nature of the employee’s work is of a limited or definite duration or the employer can demonstrate any other justifiable reason for fixing the term of the contract. Therefore, unless the fixed term employee’s employment contract expressly stipulates the reason and justification for a fixed term contract of longer than 3 months, the fixed terms contract will be deemed to be on an indefinite duration.