{"id":32407,"date":"2026-04-19T10:17:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=32407"},"modified":"2026-04-19T10:17:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:17:57","slug":"sa-constitutional-court-tightens-rules-on-constructive-dismissal-claims","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-constitutional-court-tightens-rules-on-constructive-dismissal-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Constitutional Court tightens rules on constructive dismissal claims \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Constitutional Court of South Africa (SA) has tightened the rules around constructive dismissal, ruling that employees must first exhaust internal grievance processes before resigning and pursuing a claim.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Constructive dismissal occurs when a worker resigns because working conditions have become intolerable due to the employer\u2019s conduct. While the employee formally steps down, the law may still regard it as a dismissal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The latest judgment is expected to make it harder for such claims to succeed. Employment law specialist Lee Masuku said the ruling will likely shift how cases are handled by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere will be far greater focus on whether internal remedies were properly used and exhausted. If an employee has only raised informal complaints, that could significantly weaken their case,\u201d Masuku said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He added that the courts are also likely to take a stricter view when assessing whether a workplace had truly become intolerable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe higher courts will apply a more exacting standard, meaning employees will need stronger evidence to prove that conditions were unbearable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The ruling underscores the importance of following formal workplace procedures before taking the step to resign and pursue legal action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13699,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-32407","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Constitutional Court of SA has tightened the rules around constructive dismissal","published_date":"2026-04-19 10:17:46","news_description":"Constitutional Court of SA has tightened the rules around constructive dismissal","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32408,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32407\/revisions\/32408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}