Hire someone properly, in about 15 minutes. A BCEA-compliant contract of employment built from your answers, plus an employer compliance checklist covering UIF, COIDA and SARS — with the legal landmines flagged before they bite.
Hire someone properly, in about 15 minutes.
Answer the questions below. The tool generates two documents: a Contract of Employment that covers everything section 29 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act requires an employer to put in writing, and an Employer Compliance Checklist — because the contract is the easy part; it's UIF, COIDA and SARS that catch new employers out. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Just looking? See finished examples first:
Just looking? See finished examples first:
Recommended: have the completed contract reviewed by a professional accountant or attorney before signing — especially for commission structures, executive packages, restraints of trade, or anything covered by a bargaining council or sectoral determination. This tool covers the straightforward cases well; it can't exercise judgement for you.
1 The employer
The business doing the hiring. If you've used another SmmeComplyZA tool on this device, a banner will offer your saved details so you don't retype them.
Found saved details for from another SmmeComplyZA tool.
Check this before you rely on the contract. Some industries — metal & engineering, road freight, contract cleaning, private security, hairdressing, motor, building, and others — fall under a bargaining council or sectoral determination with its own minimum wages and conditions that override the general rules. This tool generates a contract on the general BCEA framework. If a council applies to you, its conditions win where they're better for the employee. Not sure? Ask your accountant — guessing wrong here is expensive.
2 The employee
The person being hired.
No tax number? It's a 15-minute job, and it's the employee's to do. They go to
SARS eFiling, register a profile with their ID number, upload an ID copy and proof of address,
and SARS issues the number — usually immediately, sometimes within a few days. SARS no longer registers
employees through the employer, so you can't do it for them. The contract prints a blank line for the number:
fill it in by hand once it comes through, and keep a copy for your payroll file. Foreign nationals without a
South African number may need a manual registration at a SARS branch with their passport and visa.
Employee is a foreign nationalYou must verify a valid work visa or permit before they start. Employing a foreign national without one is a criminal offence under the Immigration Act — and "I didn't know" is not a defence. Keep a copy of the visa on file.
3 The job & contract type
What they'll do, where, from when — and whether it's permanent or for a fixed period.
Useful where you trade under your own company but the work belongs to a
named, separately funded project. The company stays the contracting party — the project name prints under it on
the document, so the paperwork matches the funder's file.
Calling someone a contractor doesn't make them one. This route assumes the person works mainly
at your premises or under your direction — which means the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act treats the
payment as remuneration: you withhold PAYE and issue an IRP5 coded 3616. No UIF, no
leave, no BCEA hours. If the person genuinely runs their own operation — own premises, own hours, several
clients, or three or more full-time employees of their own — this isn't the right document, and nor is an
employment contract. If they're a registered VAT vendor, they're a supplier: take their tax
invoice and pay it, don't put them on a contract at all.
The fixed-term trap (section 198B of the LRA): if the employee earns below the earnings threshold and the fixed term runs past 3 months without a justifiable reason from the list above, the law deems them permanently employed — no matter what the contract says. This is the single most common way SMMEs accidentally create permanent employees. The reason you select is written into the contract, which is exactly where it needs to be when the CCMA asks.
Include a probation periodA structured period to assess performance, with feedback and guidance. Note: probation is not a free-fire zone — the employee still has full protection against unfair dismissal from day one. It lowers the bar somewhat for performance-based dismissal, if you actually evaluated, guided and warned.
3b Engagement terms
What the contractor delivers, what they're paid, and who signs the work off.
Contractor supplies their own tools and equipmentOne of the factors that tells a contractor apart from an employee. If you supply everything and direct how the work is done daily, you are looking at an employment relationship no matter what the document says.
Work product and intellectual property vest in the companyImportant on funded creative projects — without this clause the contractor may own the copyright in what they produce, which is not what the funder expects to be paying for.
How payment works on this route: the contractor completes a deliverable, fills in the top half of the
Payment Request & Sign-Off form this tool prints, and the approver named above signs the bottom half.
That signed page is what authorises the payment run and what sits in the file when a funder asks how the money was spent.
PAYE comes off the approved amount and the net is paid over.
4 Working hours
The BCEA caps ordinary hours at 45 per week (9 hours/day for a 5-day week; 8 hours/day if working more than 5 days).
Include an overtime clauseOvertime is by agreement only, capped at 10 hours a week, paid at 1.5× (2× on Sundays and public holidays, unless Sunday work is part of ordinary hours at 1.5×). If the employee earns above the earnings threshold, the tool automatically switches to the correct above-threshold wording.
5 Pay
The tool checks your figures against the national minimum wage and the BCEA earnings threshold as you type.
Deductions: the contract includes the statutory position — PAYE and UIF come off by law; anything else needs the employee's written consent for a specific debt, or a court order. Docking pay for breakages, shortages or "damages" without following section 34 of the BCEA properly is one of the most common CCMA own-goals. The compliance checklist covers this.
6 Leave
Statutory minimums are calculated from the working week you set in section 4. You can give more than the minimum — never less.
Give more than the statutory minimum annual leave
Parental leave changed — most templates are wrong. Since the Constitutional Court's Van Wyk ruling (3 October 2025), the old "4 months maternity / 10 days paternity" split is gone. All parents — regardless of gender, and including adoptive and commissioning parents — now share 4 months and 10 days of parental leave between them, immediately effective. A single parent, or the only working parent, gets the full period. This contract uses the correct, current wording. One honest caveat: UIF still pays benefits under its old categories until Parliament fixes the UIF Act, so claims can be clunky — the checklist explains.
7 Notice & ending the contract
The BCEA sets minimum notice periods that grow with service. The contract states the statutory scale by default.
Notice must be in writing. During probation, the statutory scale still applies — there's no such thing as "no notice during probation". And remember: giving notice doesn't make a dismissal fair. Fairness (a valid reason + a fair process) is a separate requirement under the LRA. The contract cross-references the Code of Good Practice so you don't have to reinvent a disciplinary code.
8 Standard clauses
Sensible defaults for a small business. Untick anything you don't want.
ConfidentialityThe employee keeps business information — client lists, pricing, processes, finances — confidential, during and after employment. Proportionate wording that holds up. If you need a heavyweight NDA (e.g. for technical staff with access to trade secrets), that's the NDA module's job.
POPIA — employee personal informationRecords that the employer processes the employee's personal information (ID, banking, payroll, health where relevant) for employment purposes, and both parties keep each other's information confidential. Pairs with your POPIA module documents.
Company propertyTools, stock, devices, vehicles, access cards and records stay the employer's property and come back on termination.
Discipline & grievance — by reference to the Code of Good PracticeInstead of reproducing a 20-page disciplinary code, the contract adopts Schedule 8 of the LRA (the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal) as the guiding standard. Clean, defensible, and it never goes out of date.
9 Signing details
The date is left blank on the document — fill it in by hand on the day. Both parties sign; the employee gets a copy (that's a legal requirement, not a courtesy).
Include witness signature linesWitnesses aren't legally required for an employment contract — but at the CCMA, the employer carries the burden of proving what was agreed. Two signatures on the day cost nothing and end the "I never signed that" argument before it starts.
Stuck? You're not alone.
"My industry might have a bargaining council — how do I check?"
Search the Department of Employment and Labour's list of registered bargaining councils, or just ask your accountant — they'll know in thirty seconds. The common SMME ones: motor industry (MIBCO), road freight (NBCRFLI), metal & engineering (MEIBC), contract cleaning, hairdressing, building. If a council covers you, register with it and use its main agreement's minimums — they override this contract's general BCEA framework wherever they're more favourable to the employee.
"The employee refuses to sign — is the contract useless?"
No. An employment contract exists the moment someone works for you for pay — signing just proves the terms. But an unsigned contract is your problem at the CCMA, not theirs. Hand it over before day one, give them a real chance to read it, and if they still won't sign, record in writing that it was provided and that work commenced on those terms. Then reconsider the hire.
"Can I just keep rolling 3-month contracts?"
Not below the earnings threshold, no. Successive fixed terms without a justifiable reason are exactly what section 198B deems into permanent employment, and the CCMA sees this trick weekly. If the work is really permanent, hire permanently — probation exists precisely so you can assess someone properly.
"Do I really need UIF and COIDA for one employee?"
Yes, from employee number one, if they work 24+ hours a month (UIF) or at all (COIDA). Neither is optional, both are cheap relative to the alternative: COIDA is what protects you from being personally sued for a workplace injury. The checklist this tool prints walks you through both registrations, including the portal quirks.
"What about domestic workers?"
Domestic workers have their own sectoral determination with extra rules (standby, accommodation deductions, live-in arrangements). Since 2021 they're also covered by COIDA. A dedicated domestic worker version of this tool is on the roadmap — for now, this contract is not the right fit for a domestic employment relationship.