Most employers know they have some legal obligation around GBV in the workplace. What’s less clear is exactly what that looks like in practice, how far your liability extends, what the Code actually requires you to have in place, and where your workplace legally begins and ends.
The law that changed everything
In March 2022, a new Code of Good Practice on the Prevention and Elimination of Harassment in the Workplace came into effect. It replaced the old sexual harassment code from 2005 and goes much further. The Code was introduced after South Africa signed the ILO’s Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, which commits member countries to tackling violence and harassment as a workplace issue.
GBV that occurs in a work-related context, or that spills into the workplace, falls under the employer’s obligations, and the definition of “work-related” is broader than most people expect.
What the Code actually requires
Employers are required to conduct an assessment of the risk of harassment to employees, implement an appropriate policy, conduct training to educate employees about the various forms of harassment, and run ongoing awareness programmes. That list isn’t optional.
Section 60 of the Employment Equity Act requires employers to take proactive and remedial steps to prevent all forms of harassment in the workplace, and a failure to take the necessary steps within a reasonable time may render the employer vicariously liable for the conduct of a perpetrator in their employ.
If an employee is harassed or subjected to GBV at work and you haven’t done your due diligence, you can be held liable, and that’s not a hypothetical, it’s happened.
Employers must also maintain a working environment in which the dignity of all employees is protected and respected, and designate someone outside of the employee’s direct management line as the person to whom complainants can reach out.
The reach extends beyond your four walls
One of the most commonly overlooked aspects of the 2022 Code is how broadly it defines the workplace. The definition includes all public and private spaces where an employee works, covering work-related travel, social or training events, remote working, accommodation provided by the employer, employer-controlled transport, and work-related communications.
Employers are not precluded from pursuing disciplinary action pending criminal proceedings and may be obliged to take action even where conduct takes place outside of the workplace or when employees are off-duty. A recent CCMA ruling involving an Anglo American Platinum employee confirmed this, the dismissal following an off-site GBV incident was upheld because the employee had received GBV training from the company and breached its policy.
The business case
An employee who is dealing with GBV at home or in their community is not going to show up to work at full capacity. They’re managing fear, trauma, exhaustion, and often shame, all while trying to do their job. That shows up as distraction, absenteeism, mistakes, and disengagement that ripples through their team, and most of the time nobody in the organisation knows why.
The World Bank has estimated that GBV can cost countries up to 3.7% of GDP, and in South Africa the effects show up in absenteeism, reduced productivity, increased healthcare costs and diminished participation in the economy.
For working women specifically, GBV is directly linked to increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, job losses, and lost opportunities for career progression. Employers who focus only on what happens inside the workplace are missing a significant part of the picture. Supporting employees who are affected by GBV, wherever it’s happening, is not charity, it’s sound people management.
What HR managers need to action now
Your organisation needs a harassment policy that specifically addresses GBV, written in plain language and communicated to every employee, a risk assessment that looks at where your people are most vulnerable, clear reporting procedures with a designated contact person who sits outside the affected employee’s direct management line, and regular training that goes beyond a once-off onboarding session. If you don’t have these in place, you are legally exposed.
The difference between compliance and capability
Most organisations approach the training requirement the same way they approach the policy requirement, get something on paper, get it done, move on. A once-off session that covers definitions and reporting steps, people sit through it, go back to their desks, and nothing actually changes.
What actually makes a difference is when people leave a session understanding how harm really shows up, not just the obvious forms, but the subtle ones like coercive control, financial abuse, and the grooming that feels like friendship until it doesn’t.
When they know how to support a colleague who discloses something difficult, and when they feel grounded enough in themselves to respond rather than freeze, the whole workplace shifts.
This is also where supporting employees affected by GBV outside of work becomes practical rather than theoretical, when your people have real language for what harm looks like and a workplace that has created genuine safety around the topic, they’re more likely to ask for help and you’re more likely to be able to give it.
That’s what our GBV, Agency & Empowerment workshop is built around. It’s trauma-informed, practically focused, and designed to build real capability rather than just awareness, so people leave with language, clarity, and tools they can actually use.
If you want your team to have more than a policy on the wall, contact us to book your workshop.