Employment Policy Lawyers in Roodepoort

Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Labour Law practice handles employment-policy work from the firm’s Roodepoort branch at 16 Galena Avenue, Helderkruin (011 668 0030, after-hours 061 516 0091), drafting and reviewing workplace policies that comply with the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA), the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA), and the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (EEA). The service covers the core employer-side policy stack — disciplinary code and procedure, grievance procedure, code of conduct, leave policy, working-time and overtime policy, equal-opportunity and harassment policies, and any sector-specific policies a particular workplace needs (whistleblowing, social-media, smoking, substance abuse). Roodepoort-area clients can brief the firm either to draft a full policy suite from scratch, to review and update an existing set against current statutory thresholds (the BCEA and EEA thresholds move annually and most existing policy sets are out of date), or to step in urgently when a disciplinary or CCMA matter has exposed a gap in the policies on file. CCMA conciliation for Roodepoort-based disputes runs through the Johannesburg CCMA office, and Labour Court appeals are heard at the Labour Court in Braamfontein.

Why Engage a Specialist Employment Policy Lawyer in Roodepoort

A workplace policy suite is only as strong as its weakest document — CCMA commissioners and Labour Court judges read the policy that was actually in force at the date of the misconduct or dismissal, not the version HR drafted last. The risks of relying on a generic, copy-and-pasted employee handbook are concrete:

• Stale statutory thresholds. The BCEA earnings threshold, sectoral minimum-wage determinations and EEA reporting thresholds move periodically, and policies that quote a fixed figure go silent without anyone noticing. Review has to keep pace with the amendments.
• Procedural fairness under Schedule 8. The Code of Good Practice: Dismissals (Schedule 8 of the LRA) requires both substantive fairness (a fair reason related to conduct, capacity or operational requirements) and procedural fairness (notice, opportunity to respond, appropriate sanction). A bare “we follow the LRA” line in a handbook does not satisfy the procedural leg of that test.
• Disciplinary-to-CCMA continuity. Engaging one firm to draft the policies, chair or advise on the disciplinary hearing, and represent at the CCMA means the same practitioner handles continuity from paper to dispute — a material advantage when a CCMA file turns on whether a policy was actually in place and followed.

Burger Huyser’s Labour Law practice, run through the Roodepoort and Randburg branches under specialist consultant Marius Ferreira, is structured around exactly this continuity — the same practitioner who drafts the disciplinary code can chair a hearing under it and present the arbitration bundle if the matter is referred.

What an Employment Policy Service Actually Covers (Scope of Engagement)

The engagement scope is built around six work-streams. Depending on what the business already has on file, the firm will quote per work-stream rather than bundling everything into a single retainer.

Work-stream	What gets produced
Policy drafting from scratch	Disciplinary code and procedure; grievance procedure; code of conduct; leave policy (annual, sick, family responsibility, maternity, parental); working-time and overtime policy; equal-opportunity and anti-harassment policy; performance-management policy; sector-specific add-ons.
Policy review and gap analysis	A line-by-line comparison of the existing handbook and policies against the LRA, BCEA, EEA, applicable sectoral determinations and current CCMA case-law posture, with a flag-list of missing, out-of-date and non-compliant documents.
Disciplinary code design	Progressive-discipline framework, chair-and-appeal-panel structure, warning sequence, suspension-on-full-pay mechanism, and a formal notice-and-hearing template that the chair can use directly.
Operational templates and forms	Written-warning template; final-warning template; notification of disciplinary hearing; outcome-of-hearing letter; grievance lodgement form; grievance outcome letter; any sector-mandated annexures.
Advisory engagement during a disciplinary process	Chairing the disciplinary hearing, or training an internal chairperson; advising on the evidence file; making sure the procedural record will stand up at the CCMA.
CCMA and Labour Court representation	Referral responses; conciliation preparation; arbitration bundles; Labour Court review applications where a CCMA award is challenged.

The Local Procedural Layer: Where National Law Meets the Roodepoort Map

The substantive law governing every employment policy in South Africa is national — the LRA, the BCEA and the EEA apply uniformly across the country. What changes from place to place is the forum that hears a dispute arising out of those policies, and the logistics of getting to that forum.

• CCMA jurisdictional area. Roodepoort falls within the Johannesburg CCMA office’s jurisdictional area for conciliation and arbitration of unfair-dismissal, unfair-labour-practice and severance disputes referred under the LRA. The CCMA’s regional office structure routes matters by geography, not by the employer’s registered address.
• The 30-day referral window. An unfair-dismissal dispute must be referred to the CCMA within 30 days of the date of dismissal under section 191 of the LRA. Late referrals require condonation, which is granted only on good cause shown — a written policy that an employee was on notice of, and that the employer followed, materially supports both the merits defence and any condonation argument.
• Labour Court seat for Gauteng. Labour Court matters for Roodepoort-area parties — including reviews of CCMA arbitration awards — are heard at the Labour Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, the seat for Gauteng under the Labour Court rules.
• Bargaining council coverage. Where the employer and employee are covered by a registered bargaining council’s collective agreement (for example, the Metal and Engineering Industries, Motor Industry, or Building Industry Bargaining Council in the West Rand context), the council may take the place of the CCMA. The firm checks council coverage at the engagement stage, before any referral is made — sending a dismissal dispute to the wrong forum is a procedural defect that can be raised as a preliminary point.

What Goes Into a Compliant Employment Policy Suite

An LRA-, BCEA- and EEA-aligned policy suite covers the documents below. Each is anchored to a specific statutory source so that, if challenged, the document has a defensible legal foundation rather than a borrowed template.

Policy	Statutory anchor	What it must do
Disciplinary code and procedure	Schedule 8 of the LRA (Code of Good Practice: Dismissals); any applicable collective agreement	Set out progressive discipline, the chair-and-appeal structure, warning sequence, suspension-on-full-pay mechanism and a notice-and-hearing template — written to be applied consistently, not just held in a drawer.
Grievance procedure	LRA section 203 read with the Code of Good Practice on Dismissals	Written, accessible, with named grievance officers and a defined escalation path — mirroring what the CCMA will look for when an employee says there was no internal process available.
Code of conduct	Employer’s common-law authority, supported by the disciplinary code	Articulate expected behaviour, dress, attendance, social-media use, conflict-of-interest and confidentiality expectations, and the consequences of breach.
Leave policy	BCEA section 14 (annual leave), section 22 (sick leave), section 27 (family responsibility leave)	Calibrated to the BCEA minimums (annual leave at least 21 consecutive days per leave cycle for a five-day worker, sick-leave cycles of 36 months under section 22, three days of paid family-responsibility leave per year under section 27 for qualifying employees) and to any more favourable provisions in a contract or collective agreement.
Equal-opportunity and anti-harassment policy	EEA; Code of Good Practice on the Prevention and Elimination of Harassment in the Workplace	Cover physical, sexual, racial, religious, disability-related and psychological harassment; provide for informal and formal complaint routes; protect complainants against victimisation; and specify sanctions up to dismissal for serious cases.
Performance-management policy	Item 9 of Schedule 8 of the LRA (incapacity — poor work performance)	Link to incapacity procedures with clear poor-performance triggers, evaluation mechanisms and improvement cycles before dismissal is contemplated.
Whistleblowing policy	Protected Disclosures Act 26 of 2000	Anchor internal reporting channels to the PDA’s protected-disclosure framework, particularly relevant for regulated industries and any employer wanting to incentivise internal reporting.
Working-time and overtime policy	BCEA sections 9 to 12	Calibrate to the BCEA’s ordinary-hours cap (45 hours per week for non-shift workers, nine hours per day for a five-day worker), overtime limits (10 hours per week, three hours per day, paid at 1.5× normal pay or 2× on Sundays and public holidays), meal-interval and rest-period rules.

What to Look for When Choosing an Employment Policy Lawyer

Not every practitioner who holds themselves out as an employment lawyer is the right fit for policy work. Five criteria separate a specialist from a generalist:

1. Labour Law specialisation, not general practice. Employment-policy work is technical; the LRA, BCEA, EEA and the relevant Codes of Good Practice change, and a generalist drafter is likely to miss current amendments.
2. Both sides of the table. A practitioner who has acted for both employers and employees — or at least for employers in CCMA arbitrations — knows how a commissioner reads a policy, which is the real test of how the document will perform under pressure.
3. Continuity from drafting to CCMA. The same firm that drafts the policy should be able to chair or advise on a disciplinary hearing, refer or defend at conciliation, and present arbitration bundles, so that the policy’s wording and its application stay aligned.
4. Local Roodepoort / West Rand reach. Proximity to a Roodepoort branch matters for document handovers, in-person hearings-prep meetings, and any urgent on-site advisory.
5. Transparent cost conversation up front. Fees for policy drafting should be quoted as a fixed scope per policy document (or per suite) after an initial intake, not as an open-ended hourly estimate.

Burger Huyser’s Roodepoort branch meets each of these points in practice: the branch is staffed for in-person hearings-prep meetings, the Labour Law consultancy is led by Marius Ferreira, and the firm’s broader footprint means policy drafting and CCMA representation are run on a single continuous file rather than handed between departments.

Practical Considerations: Cost, Timeline, What to Bring

Fees, timelines and the intake document set are summarised below. Burger Huyser quotes the policy work in writing after a one-on-one intake at the Roodepoort branch — no work begins before the fee is confirmed.

Stage	Typical cost basis	Typical turnaround
Single focused policy (drafted or reviewed)	Fixed scope per document, quoted after intake	1 to 3 weeks from intake to first draft, depending on document complexity and review cycles
Full policy suite from scratch	Project fee, quoted after intake against the agreed scope	4 to 8 weeks across the suite
Urgent disciplinary-code or harassment-policy update for an imminent CCMA matter	Priority-fee basis, quoted per scope	Faster turnaround by arrangement
CCMA representation / disciplinary-hearing chairing	Quoted separately, usually per hearing or per stage	Tied to the CCMA roll and the LRA’s 30-day referral window

What to bring to the first consultation:

• The existing employee handbook or policy suite, even if it is out of date (the gap analysis starts here).
• The most recent employment contracts used by the business.
• Any collective agreement that applies to the workforce.
• Details of the sector, including sectoral determination coverage and bargaining council coverage.
• A short note on the specific issue the engagement is centred on — full-suite drafting, urgent review, or a live disciplinary matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an employment policy lawyer cost in Roodepoort?

Fees depend on scope. Single-policy drafting or a focused review is typically quoted as a fixed fee per document after the intake; a full policy suite from scratch is quoted as a project fee. CCMA representation and disciplinary-hearing chairing are quoted separately, usually per hearing or per stage. Burger Huyser Attorneys gives a transparent cost conversation at the first consultation at the Roodepoort branch (011 668 0030), with the fee confirmed in writing before drafting begins.

How long does it take to draft or update an employment policy suite?

A single focused policy typically runs 1 to 3 weeks from intake to first draft, depending on review cycles. A full suite from scratch typically runs 4 to 8 weeks. Urgent updates to a disciplinary code or harassment policy for an imminent CCMA matter can be turned around faster on a priority-fee basis.

Where is the Burger Huyser Roodepoort branch, and what are the hours?

16 Galena Avenue, Helderkruin, Roodepoort, 1724. Tel 011 668 0030. After-hours line 061 516 0091. Open Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:30pm.

Do I need an employment policy lawyer if I only have one or two employees?

The LRA, BCEA and EEA apply from the first employee onwards — there is no de minimis threshold. Small employers should at minimum have a disciplinary code and procedure, a grievance procedure, a basic code of conduct, and an employment contract per employee. The scope of the policy suite scales with the size and risk profile of the business, not with the number of staff.

What happens if I do not have written employment policies and an employee refers a dispute to the CCMA?

The CCMA will still hear the dispute. The absence of a written policy makes it harder for the employer to prove procedural fairness — the commissioner will look at what the employer actually did, but with no anchor document to point to, the employer’s evidence on consistency and notice is weaker. The typical outcome is that the matter turns more heavily on witness credibility than on the documents, which is a riskier footing for the employer.

Can the same lawyer who drafts my policies also represent me at the CCMA?

Yes — and the continuity is one of the main advantages. The practitioner who drafted the disciplinary code knows what its words were meant to do, can defend the wording at conciliation and arbitration, and avoids the gap that opens when a different firm inherits a CCMA file without knowing the policy history. Burger Huyser runs its Labour Law practice on that continuity.

Which CCMA office handles Roodepoort disputes?

Roodepoort falls within the Johannesburg CCMA office’s jurisdictional area for conciliation and arbitration under the LRA. Where the employer and employee are covered by a registered bargaining council’s collective agreement, the council may handle the dispute instead of the CCMA — that is checked at the engagement stage.