Prior to the commencement of the Labour Relations Amendment Act (No. 6 of 2014), in January 2015, a Temporary Employment Service (“TES”), also known as labour brokers, were considered to be the employer of its employees, as opposed to the client of the TES, for whom the employee provided his or her services.
This meant that the employee had little recourse against the client of the TES. In terms of the amendment to s189 of the Labour Relations Act, the client of the TES will now, under certain circumstances, be deemed to be the employer of the employee. Furthermore, if the employee is employed for more than 3 months, the employee will be deemed to be a permanent employee of the client, with the consequence that the client takes on all dismissal obligations and liabilities. The employee may therefore institute proceedings against either the TES or the client or both and may enforce an award, order, ruling, etc against either party.