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IOL News reports that foreign national employees must be provided with proper notice of termination of their employment in line with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) and failure to provide such notice may result in the termination being unlawful.
This is the warning of employment law experts at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH), following a recent Eastern Cape High Court judgment relating to a research assistant and Zimbabwean national, Samuel Nyakudya. He was granted a temporary residence permit allowing him to reside in SA and seek employment in the category of general work. Nyakudya was then employed by the OR Tambo District Municipality on successive fixed-term contracts. During his employment, Nyakudya was not consistently in possession of a work visa. In November 2023, the municipality notified him that his contract had expired. The municipality claimed it had had no choice but to terminate his employment immediately, citing the unlawful nature of his contract due to the expiration of his work visa. But, the court ruled that employing a foreign national without a work visa did not automatically grant an employer the right to summarily terminate the employment contract. Commenting on the case, CDH said that this area of termination had just become a lot clearer for employers after the ruling. “This case serves as a significant reminder that employing a foreign national without a work visa does not automatically grant an employer the right to terminate the employment contract summarily,” CDH warned.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Zelda Venter at IOL News
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