The Assign Services case on the “deeming” provision in the Labour Relations Act is apparently due to be heard in February by the Constitutional Court with a judgement expected in April 2018. This ruling has a material impact on all employers who use employees through a labour broker.
As a reminder, the original ruling in the Labour Appeal Court (now being appealed in the Constitutional Court) held that employees deemed to be employees of the employer under the Labour Relations Act were solely the employers of the end client and not employers of the Labour Broker (or other party) with whom they were contracted. This ruling created an odd situation where employees held a contract with one party and were managed by that party, but were actually employers only of another party with whom they had no contract of employment.