Can my employer change my contract without my consent?

No. Your employer cannot change the terms and conditions of your employment without your consent. Your pay, hours, job grade, place of work, benefits and leave are all terms of a contract, and a contract can only be changed by agreement. An employer that simply announces a new salary or shift pattern and expects you to accept it is making a unilateral change, and the law gives you tools to resist it.

This guide is part of our Labour law for employers: a practical guide for small businesses, which links every guide on the topic.

There is one important limit. Your employer does have the right to manage the business. It can decide who reports to whom, what tasks are prioritised and how the roster is filled, provided the contract allows that flexibility. Lawyers call this managerial prerogative. Most disputes sit on the line between the two.

The two Acts that matter are the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997. The first protects you from being dismissed for refusing a change and gives you a route to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The second sets minimum terms that no contract may go below.

What counts as a change to your contract

A term of your contract is anything you and the employer agreed to when you started, or agreed to later, whether in writing or by long-standing practice. The most common terms are:

• basic pay, commission and how bonuses are calculated
• ordinary hours, overtime arrangements and shift patterns
• your job title, grade and core duties
• your place of work
• medical aid, pension or provident fund contributions
• leave over and above the statutory minimum
• notice periods

A change to any of these needs your agreement. Reducing your salary, moving you to commission only, cutting your medical aid subsidy, extending your working week or transferring you to another city are all changes to terms and conditions.

By contrast, changing your line manager, adjusting a roster within the hours the contract already permits, or asking you to take on a reasonable related task are usually changes to how the work is organised. If your contract says you may be required to work at any branch in Gauteng, a move from Sandton to Centurion is probably within the contract. If it says nothing about location, the same move is probably a change to a term.

How the law protects you

The Labour Relations Act treats a demand to change terms and conditions as a matter of mutual interest, the Act's phrase for things that are negotiated rather than imposed. If your employer dismisses you because you refuse such a demand, the dismissal is automatically unfair. That is the strongest category of unfair dismissal, and compensation for it is capped at 24 months' remuneration rather than the usual 12.

The Act also lets you refer a dispute about a unilateral change to the CCMA or your bargaining council. In some circumstances you can require the employer not to implement the change, or to restore the old terms, while the dispute is being conciliated. The CCMA will tell you whether that option applies to your situation.

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act adds two more protections. An employer must give you written particulars of employment and update them when a term changes, so an unrecorded change is harder for the employer to prove. Our guide on what must be in an employment contract lists those particulars. And no agreement, however willingly you sign it, can take you below the Act's minimums on hours, overtime, leave and notice.

Step by step: what usually happens

1. The employer announces the change. It may be a memo, a new contract to sign, or a payslip that is simply smaller than last month's.
2. You object in writing. This is the most important step. Say clearly that you do not agree and that you are working under your existing terms under protest. Keep a copy.
3. The employer either negotiates or insists. A reasonable employer explains the business reason and discusses alternatives. Some issue an ultimatum instead.
4. You decide whether to refer a dispute. A unilateral change dispute can be referred to the CCMA while you are still employed. There is no fee.
5. If the employer dismisses you for refusing, you refer an automatically unfair dismissal dispute. Conciliation happens at the CCMA, and if it fails the matter usually goes to the Labour Court.
6. If the employer has a genuine operational reason and cannot keep the old terms, it may instead follow the retrenchment procedure under section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, which requires consultation and, if you are retrenched, severance pay.

That last point is where employers often go wrong. Dismissing you to force you to accept new terms is automatically unfair. Retrenching you because the business genuinely cannot afford the old terms, after a proper consultation, may be fair. The Constitutional Court confirmed this in NUMSA v Aveng Trident Steel [2020] ZACC 23: the question is the true reason for the dismissal, and where it was a genuine restructuring rather than pressure to accept a demand, the dismissal was not automatically unfair. Which side of the line an employer is on depends on what it actually did and why.

A worked example

The figures are illustrative only.

Thabo is a sales representative earning a basic salary of R18 000 a month plus commission. In February his employer emails all reps to say that from 1 March the basic falls to R9 000 and commission rates go up. No meeting is held. Thabo's March payslip shows R9 000 plus R4 200 commission, about R4 800 down on a usual month.

Thabo writes to HR on 3 March. He says he did not agree to the change, that he is working under protest on his existing terms, and that he wants a meeting. HR replies that the change applies to everyone and that anyone who does not sign the new contract by 31 March will "have to consider their position".

On 15 March Thabo refers a unilateral change dispute to the CCMA. Before conciliation his employer, having taken advice, withdraws the deadline and calls a meeting. It explains that the company lost a major client and proposes a smaller cut with a guaranteed minimum for six months. Thabo agrees in writing, the new term is recorded, and he is paid the shortfall for March.

Had the employer dismissed him on 31 March for refusing to sign, Thabo would have had a strong automatically unfair dismissal claim with compensation of up to 24 months' remuneration. The written objection on 3 March is what separates that claim from an argument about whether he accepted the change by working on.

What to do this week

1. Find your contract and any later amendments, plus the written particulars the employer gave you.
2. Write down exactly what has changed, when you were told, and how. Attach the memo, email or payslip.
3. Object in writing to the employer, stating that you do not consent and are working under protest. Do this before you do anything else. Our grievance letter template gives you a structure that also starts the formal grievance procedure.
4. Do not sign a new contract until you understand it. Ask for a copy to take home.
5. Keep working. Refusing to work at all, rather than refusing the new term, invites a misconduct dismissal.
6. Phone the CCMA on 0861 16 16 16 and ask about referring a unilateral change dispute.
7. Talk to your union if you belong to one. Group changes are often best handled collectively.

Documents to gather

Keep a folder with your signed contract, any amendment letters, the written particulars of employment, the last six payslips, the memo or email announcing the change, your written objection and any reply, notes of every meeting with names and dates, your job description, and evidence of how the term was applied in practice, such as roster history or past commission statements. If the employer says the contract always allowed the change, the wording will decide the point, so get a clean copy while you still have access to the HR system.

A realistic timeline

• Day 0. The change is announced or appears on your payslip.
• Days 1 to 7. Written objection. Request a meeting.
• Weeks 2 to 4. Negotiation, or an ultimatum. Refer a unilateral change dispute if the employer will not engage.
• Roughly 30 days after referral. Conciliation. Many disputes settle here with a revised term or a phase-in.
• If you are dismissed for refusing, you have 30 days to refer an unfair dismissal dispute. See how to refer an unfair dismissal.
• Claims that do not settle go to the Labour Court, which can take a year or more.

Common mistakes and what they cost

• Staying silent. Working under the new terms for months without objecting can be taken as acceptance by conduct.
• Refusing to work instead of refusing the term. Downing tools invites a misconduct charge and shifts the whole dispute.
• Signing under pressure. A signed new contract is very hard to undo unless you can prove duress, which is a high bar.
• Resigning in anger. A resignation can sometimes be a constructive dismissal, but it is much harder to prove. Take advice first.
• Missing the 30 day deadline after a dismissal. Late referrals need condonation and the delay counts against you.

Your rights vs the employer's rights

You have the right to the terms you agreed to, to written particulars of those terms, to object to a change without being punished, to refer a dispute while still employed, and not to be dismissed for refusing a demand about a matter of mutual interest. You also have the right to the minimums in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act whatever your contract says.

The employer has the right to run its business, to organise work within the contract, to propose changes and negotiate for them, and, where there is a genuine operational need, to consult about retrenchment under section 189 and to retrench with severance pay if consultation fails. It does not have the right to impose new terms by threat.

If you cannot afford an attorney

Referring a unilateral change dispute or an unfair dismissal to the CCMA is free. Phone 0861 16 16 16 for the nearest office. If a bargaining council covers your sector, it handles the dispute instead, also without a fee. The Department of Employment and Labour can help with breaches of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Legal Aid South Africa on 0800 110 110 assists people who pass its means test.

Automatically unfair dismissal claims go to the Labour Court, where legal representation matters more. At CCMA arbitration for misconduct and incapacity dismissals, representation by an attorney is at the commissioner's discretion, so the process is built for people who represent themselves. See what labour matters cost for typical attorney charges.

Frequently asked questions

People often ask whether a change that everyone else accepted binds them too. It does not. A collective agreement with a union that represents you may bind you, but a memo that most colleagues signed does not change your contract. Others ask whether a demotion counts. It does. A demotion is a change to a term and, without agreement, can also be an unfair labour practice, which has its own 90 day referral period.