Fees

Two schedules, because you are not in the same position.

Publishing one set of numbers and calling it even-handed would be a way of only really acting for whichever of you has a budget. So there are two, both published, and you can read the other one.

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The schedules

Side by side, so neither is the small print.

Employers

Monthly retainer, under 50 employees: R7,500; Advice, contract and policy review, and the calls that do not justify a file
Monthly retainer, 50 to 200 employees: R16,500; The same, plus a quarterly review of disciplinary outcomes
Chairing a disciplinary hearing: R9,500 a day; An independent chairperson, which removes the commonest procedural attack
Drafting a disciplinary code: R18,000; Aligned to Schedule 8 and to how you actually operate
CCMA conciliation: R11,000; Preparation and attendance
CCMA arbitration: From R24,000; Where representation is permitted; quoted per day thereafter
Section 189 process, start to finish: From R45,000; Notice, consultation, minutes, selection and severance
Section 189A with facilitation: From R85,000; The sixty-day process, including the facilitated sessions

Employees

First consultation, 45 minutes: No charge; Whether you have a case, and what it is realistically worth
Referral drafted and lodged: R2,800; The LRA 7.11, served and filed, within the thirty days
Preparing you to run your own arbitration: R6,500; Bundle, statement, questions to ask, and a rehearsal
CCMA conciliation, with you: R8,500; Preparation and attendance
CCMA arbitration, where representation is allowed: From R19,000; Quoted per day thereafter
Condonation application: R4,500; Where the thirty or ninety days has already passed
Reviewing a settlement offer: R1,900; What it is worth against what an award would be
Contingency, where the claim justifies it: Capped by statute; Twenty-five per cent including VAT, or double the normal fee, whichever is lower

A table seen from directly above, laid out in matched pairs: two mugs of tea, two notepads — one indigo, one rust — two pens, two bundles of paper, and a pair of reading glasses. — Two of everything, photographed from above, which is the only angle from which neither side of a table is the better half. The schedules are published the same way: side by side, at the same size, and you can read the one that is not yours.

Excluding VAT. Illustrative figures on a demonstration site; a real firm would state the date these took effect. The CCMA itself charges nothing to refer or to arbitrate. A costs order is rare rather than impossible: section 138(10) of the Labour Relations Act gives the commissioner a discretion according to law and fairness, and CCMA Rule 39 sets out what it turns on.

How we bill

Four things that hold whichever side you are.

Two schedules, not one discounted

An employer is buying predictability across a year. An employee is out of work and often cannot pay anything at all until the matter ends. One fee schedule dressed up to look neutral would in practice only serve the party with a budget.

The first call is free on both sides

Ten minutes to find out whether there is a case and which clock you are on. A fair number of those calls end with us telling an employer to reinstate, or an employee to accept the offer.

Preparation is a service, not a consolation

Where the commissioner will not allow representation, preparing you properly is the work — bundle, statement, the questions to ask, and a rehearsal of the cross-examination you are going to face. It is priced as work because it is work.

Contingency has a statutory ceiling

The Contingency Fees Act caps it at twenty-five per cent of what is recovered including VAT, or double the normal fee, whichever is lower. We use it for employees where the claim justifies it, and the agreement is signed before anything starts.

Tell us which side you are on and what has happened.

We will run the conflict check first, and then tell you which line of which schedule you are on.

021 000 0000 How we act for both