The new Labour Court rules 2024 as well as the new Labour Appeal Court rules 2024 have been published.
They contain a number of significant amendments relating to a range of procedural matters.
They are designed to regulate and streamline processes and to address issues / challenges resulting from the application of the previous rules.
Key changes brought about by the new rules include the following:
- Certain time periods relating to the exchange of pleadings have been extended.
- Dies non (days which are not counted in calculating time periods) have been put in place. Historically there were no dies non, and as a result, normal timeframes continued to run even during the December holiday period. This resulted in many condonation applications having to be brought.
- Exceptions and applications to strike out are provided for. Previously, these were regulated by the Uniform Rules applicable in the High Court.
- Parties may be placed under bar if they fail to timeously deliver pleadings. This is a mechanism also drawn from the rules applicable in the High Court.
- All opposed actions will be case managed.
- Review applications will only require a concise statement of grounds of review. This will do away with the historical approach of filing detailed affidavits in support of review applications.
- Specific time periods are set for restraint of trade applications.
At the time of publication, the date of commencement of the new rules has not yet been confirmed.
Read the new Labour Court rules 2024 and the new LAC rules here:
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