A Labour Appeal Court in South Africa has ruled that employees hired via temporary employment services, or labour brokers, will be entitled to permanent employee benefits if they remain employed by a company for more than three months.

The decision overturned a previous judgement from 2015 which ruled that labour brokers and client companies are dual employers.

“The protection is a measure to ensure that these employees are not treated differently from the employees employed directly by the client,” Judge Pule Tlaletsi said in his judgement. “The purpose of these protections in the context of section 198A (of the Labour Relations Act) is to ensure that the deemed employees are fully integrated into the enterprise as employees of the client.”

The judgment came as a result of a case involving the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Assign Services‚ Krost Shelving and Racking and the Commission for Conciliation‚ Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

Assign Services, a labour broking company which was supplying contract staff to Krost Shelving and Racking stated that after the period of three months lapsed, contract workers would be the responsibility of both Krost and Assign. Numsa contended that the placed workers should be regarded as full-time employees of Krost, as they had been contracted to work there in excess of three months. In terms of the law, Krost was the sole employer. Assign disagreed and contended that the workers were the responsibility of Assign and Krost, as dual employers, and that the temporary contract remained intact.

“This is a victory for contract and temporary workers everywhere. It confirms that labour brokers may not exploit workers on contract for indefinite periods of time," said Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim. "Numsa will now pursue their plight even more aggressively and demand justice for our members."

The ruling means that after the end of a three-month period, labour broker employees cannot be treated any differently from a traditional employee. Furthermore, employers will also no longer be able to simply cancel the labour contract and would have a number of obligations including full dismissal procedure under the Labour Relations Act. Labour broker employees will also have access to the same benefits as those employed directly by the company.