The purpose of the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2026, is to modernise the statutory framework governing termination on account of redundancy, to strengthen consultation and notice requirements, to provide for payment of wages in lieu of notice, to revise severance benefit rates, and to replace obsolete retrenchment terminology with redundancy terminology.
The Bill further makes consequential amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, the Companies Act, the Central Bank Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, to preserve Industrial Court jurisdiction, protect workers’ severance entitlements in insolvency and financial resolution proceedings, ensure consistency across written laws, and to give effect to recent judicial decisions.
