How to Refer a Dispute to the CCMA – A Practical Guide

If you have been unfairly dismissed, discriminated against or subjected to an unfair labour practice, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) offers a free and accessible way to resolve the matter without heading straight to court. The process is designed so that ordinary employees can use it without a lawyer, but it comes with strict deadlines and procedural requirements that catch many people off guard. Knowing how to refer a dispute to the CCMA correctly, and doing so before your deadline expires, can make the difference between a case that is heard and one that is thrown out on a technicality. This guide walks you through the entire process, from completing the referral form to enforcing an arbitration award.

What Is the CCMA?

The CCMA is an independent dispute resolution body established by the Labour Relations Act (LRA) to resolve workplace disputes between employers and employees without the cost and delay of litigation. It does not take sides. A commissioner’s job is to apply the law to the facts presented, which means the outcome of your case rests largely on how well it is prepared and argued.

Using the CCMA is free. You pay nothing to refer a dispute or to attend conciliation or arbitration. That said, a commissioner may order a party who acts in a frivolous or vexatious manner to pay costs, and a party who asks the CCMA to subpoena a witness is generally responsible for that witness’s fees. Employees, employers, registered trade unions and employers’ organisations may all refer disputes, and you do not need the other party’s consent before doing so.

Who Qualifies as an Employee?

The CCMA can only assist people who meet the legal definition of an employee under the LRA, so it is worth confirming your status before you refer. You are likely to qualify if the manner in which you work or your working hours are controlled by another person, if you are economically dependent on the person you work for, if you have worked an average of 40 hours per month for the same person over the past three months, or if your tools of trade and equipment are supplied to you.

Permanent staff, fixed-term employees and casual workers can all fall within this definition. A genuinely self-employed independent contractor, on the other hand, sits outside the CCMA’s reach entirely.

Which Disputes Can Be Referred to the CCMA?

The CCMA hears most disputes that arise from the employment relationship. The most common is unfair dismissal, where an employee believes they were dismissed without a fair reason or without a fair procedure being followed. Unfair labour practice disputes are also frequently referred, covering issues such as promotions, demotions, withheld benefits and disciplinary action short of dismissal. Discrimination disputes, where an employee has been treated unfairly on grounds such as race, gender or another protected characteristic, may also be brought to the Commission. Certain Basic Conditions of Employment Act claims can be linked to unfair dismissal or unfair retrenchment disputes referred to the CCMA.

Disputes the CCMA Cannot Hear

Some matters fall outside the Commission’s authority. Disputes involving genuine independent contractors are excluded, as are disputes in sectors covered by a bargaining council or statutory council, which must be referred to that council instead. Where the parties have a private agreement for resolving disputes, such as private arbitration, that agreement takes precedence. Claims for money owed by an employer, such as unpaid wages, are a partial exception: employees who earn at or below the BCEA earnings threshold may refer these claims to the CCMA under section 73A of the BCEA, while those who earn above the threshold must take them to the Labour Court, the High Court, the Magistrates’ Court or the Small Claims Court instead. Large-scale retrenchment disputes are conciliated at the CCMA but proceed to the Labour Court if unresolved, although a single retrenched employee may choose to have the dispute arbitrated by the CCMA instead.

How to Refer a Dispute to the CCMA: The Referral Process

The referral itself is a defined process, and completing each step correctly is what gives the CCMA the authority, or jurisdiction, to hear your matter. If the referring party makes errors in completing or serving the form, the referral may be defective and the Commission may refuse to hear the case at all.

Step 1: Complete the LRA Form 7.11

The referral is made on a CCMA case referral form, known as the LRA Form 7.11. It asks for your details, the employer’s details, the nature of the dispute and the outcome you are seeking. These forms are available from CCMA offices, Department of Employment and Labour offices and the CCMA website. You can also refer a dispute digitally through the CCMA’s online case management portal (cmsonline.ccma.org.za) or its WhatsApp chatbot, and an electronic referral is accepted as your signature. Each form may only be used to refer one dispute. If your dispute concerns unfair discrimination, the form also asks what steps you took to resolve it internally first, such as raising a grievance, and a referral made without a reasonable attempt to do so may be treated as premature. Accuracy matters here, because mistakes on the form can undermine the entire referral.

Step 2: Serve the Form on the Other Party

Once the form is completed and signed, a copy must be delivered to the other party, and you must be able to prove that they received it. Acceptable methods include hand delivery, where the person receiving it should sign for it, email, fax or registered post. Whichever method you choose, keep the evidence, whether that is a signed acknowledgement, a transmission report, a postal receipt, a signed statement from the person who delivered it, or a copy of the sent email showing that it and its attachments were dispatched. If you refer your dispute through the CCMA’s online portal or WhatsApp chatbot, you do not need to attach proof of service to the referral.

Step 3: Deliver the Form to the CCMA with Proof of Service

You do not need to deliver the referral to the CCMA in person. The completed form, together with the proof that it was served on the other party, may be submitted by hand at a CCMA or Department of Employment and Labour office, by registered post, or by email to one of the CCMA regional office addresses listed in the CCMA Rules, in Word or PDF format. Fax is not one of the filing methods listed in the amended Rules. Documents sent by email or through the online platforms may be filed at any time, on any day of the week. The CCMA will then notify both parties in writing of the date, time and venue of the conciliation hearing, at least 14 days beforehand in most cases, and it aims to resolve the dispute within 30 days of the referral. The venue may be an online hearing. It is sensible to include a cellphone number on the form, as the amended Rules allow the Commission to give notice of hearings by SMS or WhatsApp.

Deadlines for Referring a Dispute

The single most common reason a good case never gets heard is a missed deadline. An unfair dismissal dispute must be referred within 30 days of the date of dismissal. An unfair labour practice dispute must be referred within 90 days of the act or omission complained of. A discrimination dispute has a longer window of six months. The referral must be received by the CCMA within the deadline, so do not leave it until the last day.

These are calendar days, so weekends and public holidays count. The first day is excluded from the calculation, and the last day is only excluded if it falls on a Sunday or public holiday. For a dismissal, the clock generally starts running on the date the employment contract ended or the date the employee left the employer’s service, whichever comes first.

Late Referrals and Condonation

Missing the deadline does not automatically end the matter, but it puts you on the back foot. You must apply for condonation, which asks the commissioner to accept the late referral. The application must explain the degree of lateness, the reason for the delay, your prospects of success and any prejudice the other party would suffer if the matter proceeded. The employer is entitled to respond within five days of receiving the application. Condonation can also be applied for through the CCMA’s online platforms, and if a late referral is made without a condonation application attached, the CCMA will decide whether condonation is determined at a hearing or on written submissions. Condonation is granted at the commissioner’s discretion, not as a right, and a weak explanation can sink an otherwise strong case.

The Conciliation Hearing

Conciliation is the first hearing and the CCMA’s attempt to settle the dispute by agreement. Both parties meet with a commissioner whose role is to help them find common ground, not to decide who is right. The discussions are confidential and without prejudice, meaning that offers made during conciliation cannot later be used against either party at arbitration. Conciliation proceedings may not be recorded.

Legal representation is not permitted at conciliation. You may represent yourself or be represented by a member, office bearer or official of your registered trade union, while an employer may be represented by a director, an employee or an office bearer of its employers’ organisation. If the parties reach an agreement, the terms are recorded in a signed settlement agreement that is binding and enforceable. If no agreement is reached, the commissioner issues a certificate of outcome confirming that the dispute remains unresolved, which is your gateway to the next stage.

Con-Arb: Conciliation and Arbitration on the Same Day

In certain matters, the CCMA runs a combined process called con-arb, where arbitration begins immediately after conciliation fails, usually before the same commissioner on the same day. Neither party may object to con-arb in disputes about a dismissal or unfair labour practice relating to probation, disputes about BCEA compliance orders, or claims for money owed under section 73A of the BCEA. For other unfair dismissal and unfair labour practice disputes, either party may object to con-arb in writing at least seven days before the scheduled date, in which case conciliation takes place on its own and arbitration is set down separately. A shorter objection period is only allowed if the objecting party shows good cause. If conciliation then fails, the referring party must file an LRA Form 7.13 to request arbitration.

The danger of con-arb is arriving unprepared. If you expect an informal settlement discussion and the matter proceeds straight into arbitration, you must be ready to lead evidence, call witnesses and cross-examine on the spot. A party who fails to attend a con-arb hearing also runs a serious risk: the commissioner may proceed in their absence and issue a default award or dismiss the matter entirely.

The Arbitration Hearing

If conciliation fails and the matter was not dealt with by con-arb, you must request arbitration by completing the LRA Form 7.13 within 90 days of the certificate of outcome being issued. You may also request arbitration once 30 days have passed since the referral without the dispute being resolved. As with the initial referral, the form must be served on the other party and delivered to the CCMA with proof of service. The Commission must notify the parties of the arbitration date at least 21 days before the hearing, and the parties may agree in writing to postpone, provided the agreement reaches the CCMA at least seven days beforehand. Otherwise, a party must apply for a postponement, and there is no automatic right to one. Where both parties are represented by a trade union, employers’ organisation or legal practitioner, they must hold a pre-arbitration conference at least 14 days before the hearing, and the amended Rules now require them to discuss whether artificial intelligence or AI-generated information will be used, and to what extent.

Arbitration is far more formal than conciliation. Each side makes an opening statement, leads its evidence under oath, calls witnesses and cross-examines the other party’s witnesses before making closing arguments. The commissioner must be satisfied, on a balance of probabilities, that the dismissal was both procedurally and substantively fair, a lower threshold than the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt.

Legal Representation at Arbitration

Legal representation at arbitration is more open than at conciliation, but it is not automatic. In dismissal disputes involving misconduct or incapacity, attorneys are not permitted as of right. The same restriction applies to arbitrations of BCEA disputes referred under sections 69(5), 73 or 73A. A party may apply for legal representation on the basis that the case is legally or factually complex, that it is in the public interest, or that the parties are unevenly matched, and the commissioner will decide. The parties and the commissioner may also simply consent to legal representation. Under the amended Rules, a commissioner may also, on application, allow a person who would not ordinarily qualify to represent a party at arbitration, after considering factors such as affordability, the person’s ability to represent the party meaningfully and any prejudice to the other side. In most other disputes, a legal practitioner is generally allowed.

The Arbitration Award and Remedies

The commissioner issues a final and binding decision, called an arbitration award, within 14 days of the hearing. Where a dismissal is found to be substantively unfair, the commissioner may order reinstatement, which returns the employee to work on the same terms and conditions as before, potentially with back-pay, or re-employment on new terms and conditions. Compensation may be awarded as an amount that is just and equitable in the circumstances. Where a dismissal is only procedurally unfair, reinstatement and re-employment are not available and compensation is at the commissioner’s discretion. In that case, the commissioner may also order the employer to pay an arbitration fee to the CCMA, which must be paid by electronic transfer within 14 days of receiving the award.

Enforcing, Reviewing or Rescinding an Award

An award that orders the payment of money can, once certified by the CCMA, be enforced through the Sheriff of the court against the employer’s property, and the amount earns interest from the date of the award. An award ordering reinstatement or re-employment is enforced through contempt proceedings in the Labour Court.

An award is final, but it is not always the end of the road. A party may take the award on review to the Labour Court, but only where the commissioner committed misconduct, committed a gross irregularity in conducting the proceedings, exceeded their powers or made the award improperly. Review challenges how the commissioner ran the process, not the merits of the decision. A separate remedy is rescission, an application to the CCMA itself to set an award aside, most commonly where it was granted by default because a party did not attend. A rescission application should be brought within 14 days of the party becoming aware of the award. If either application succeeds, the matter may need to be arbitrated afresh.

Getting Help with Your Referral

The CCMA was built for self-help, and many employees successfully handle a straightforward referral and conciliation on their own. The process becomes considerably harder the moment there is a question over jurisdiction, a missed deadline requiring condonation, a con-arb you need to prepare for, or an arbitration that will turn on cross-examination. Employers frequently arrive at arbitration with experienced consultants or attorneys, and facing that alone can put you at a disadvantage that has nothing to do with the strength of your case. Acting quickly, serving your forms correctly and keeping proof of every step will protect your rights from the very first day of your dispute.