This is written for the day it happens, when nothing is decided and you have not slept.
It explains what is worth doing and what is worth not doing. It explains the law generally and it is not advice about your own case.
Today
1. Write down the date
The date you were dismissed is the single most important fact you own right now, because you have 30 days from it to refer an unfair dismissal to the CCMA.
Put it in a note on your phone. Not the day of the hearing, not the day you were suspended, not the day the money comes in. The date your employment ended.
If your letter is unclear, use the earliest date that could plausibly apply until you have confirmed it, and confirm it this week. How long do you have to refer a case to the CCMA? explains which date applies in the cases people most often get wrong.
2. Ask for your paperwork, in writing
Send one message, today, by email or WhatsApp, so there is a record of the asking as well as the answer. Something like:
Keep the message you sent, not only the reply. A request that was ignored is itself useful later.
A certificate of service is something you are entitled to on termination, and it is worth asking for at the same time because it is easy to get now and awkward to get in six months.
3. Write down what happened, in order, with dates
Do this today, while it is sharp. In four months you will remember the feeling and not the sequence, and the sequence is what matters.
Write it plainly:
- What you were accused of, and when you first heard about it.
- Who said what, and on what date.
- Whether there was a hearing, when, who chaired it, and who was there.
- Whether you were allowed to state your side, call a witness, or have someone with you.
- What you were told the reason was, and what you were given in writing.
- Any warnings before this, when, and what for.
Save it somewhere that is not only your work email, which you may lose access to without warning.
Tomorrow
4. Collect the paper
Your contract or letter of appointment. Any written warnings. The notice of the disciplinary hearing and the outcome. The policy or code of conduct if you signed one. Your last three payslips. Any messages between you and your employer about the incident.
Get anything that lives on a work system now. Work email, a work laptop, a shared drive, a WhatsApp group you will be removed from. Access disappears quickly after a dismissal, and it disappears without a warning.
Take screenshots rather than relying on the account still being there.
5. Claim your UIF
A dismissed worker can generally claim unemployment benefits. Being dismissed does not, by itself, disqualify you. There is a period within which the claim must be made, so do it in the first weeks rather than after the dispute is settled.
This is separate from any CCMA dispute and does not affect it. It also does not mean you accept that the dismissal was fair.
Five things not to do
Do not sign anything you do not understand. Especially anything described as a mutual separation, a settlement, a waiver, or a resignation. Ask for a copy, take it home and read it. Nobody can require you to sign on the spot.
Do not resign. If you are offered the chance to resign instead of being dismissed, understand that resigning is a decision with consequences for what you can claim afterwards, and it may also affect a UIF claim. Get advice before you take it, not after.
Do not post about it. Not the company name, not the manager's name, not the details. It will be read by people you did not have in mind, it can end up in front of a commissioner, and it cannot be taken back.
Do not delete anything. Not the angry messages, not the group chat, not the email you regret. Deleting things you wish did not exist is how a difficult case becomes an unrecoverable one.
Do not go back to argue. Nothing said at the gate on the day after helps you, and some of it hurts.
Next week, not this week
Once those five things are done, the question changes from what happened to whether what happened was unfair in law, which is a different question and a much colder one.
A dismissal is unfair when the employer had no fair reason for it, or followed an unfair process to get there, or both. Start with Unfair dismissal in South Africa: what it means and what to do next, and then Dismissed without a hearing: is that unfair? if there was no proper process.
When you are ready to refer, How to refer a dispute to the CCMA, step by step covers the form and the mistakes that cost people their case before anyone has looked at it.
And if you only find this on day 40, you have not run out of options. Read Missed the 30 days? What CCMA condonation actually requires and act today rather than tomorrow.
One more thing, about the next two days
You are going to be told two things this week, both by people who care about you. That you were robbed and should fight. And that you should let it go and move on.
Neither of them knows. Both are guessing from the outside of a process they have not been through.
The useful thing to do in the first 48 hours is not to decide. It is to protect your options: fix the date, keep the paper, write it down. All three take an hour, none of them cost anything, and all three are impossible to do properly a month from now.
When you are ready to find out where you actually stand, FairCase gives you a written assessment of your unfair dismissal case for R249, once off, including the honest risks and a probability score with the calculation shown. If your case is weak, the report says so. Checking your deadline is free.