An employment council or a works council may register an employment code of conduct, and once registered it binds the whole industry, undertaking or workplace it covers. Where no code is registered, the national model code applies instead.

Section 101(1) provides for registration, and where an employment council has registered a code for the employers and employees it represents, a works council may not register its own for the same industry. This is the machinery that section 12B depends on: an employer who cannot point to a code and show it was followed has not lawfully dismissed anybody. Act 11 of 2023 introduced a five year review cycle for codes.

Applies to: Employers and employees in an industry or workplace with a registered code