Staff problem? Procedure decides who wins.
The CCMA rarely asks whether the employee deserved it; it asks whether you were fair getting there. Pick your situation and follow the steps. Since September 2025 a new Code of Good Practice: Dismissal governs this, and it explicitly lets small businesses run less formal processes, as long as fairness survives.
The paperwork for each situation
Every step above needs its letter, and a letter you wrote at the time beats a memory at the CCMA. The disciplinary pack (R450) carries the warning, enquiry notice, suspension notice and outcome letters; the retrenchment pack (R450) carries the section 189 sequence; the Employer Protection Pack (R1 790) carries the lot plus workplace rules, hearing records and the CCMA preparation checklist. Need it drafted for your exact case instead? Order any pack and note the situation in your form; we tailor the wording at no extra charge for straightforward cases.
When to get a labour specialist instead
Honestly: dismissing a shop steward or pregnant employee, a strike, more than one retrenchment at once, anything already referred to the CCMA, or any situation where the employee has an attorney. Procedure guidance stops being enough exactly where the stakes or the law get specialised, and a R30 000 award costs more than any consultation.
Summaries follow the Labour Relations Act and the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal in force from September 2025. Guidance, not legal advice; outcomes turn on your facts and on consistency with how you treated others before.