Johan Botes

Practice Areas

Johan Botes heads Baker McKenzie’s Employment & Compensation Practice Group in Johannesburg. Johan is experienced in employment law and labor relations, focusing on South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. He regularly advises multinational clients on industrial relations, employment negotiations, labor dispute resolution, change management, and organizational restructuring. His team manages multijurisdictional employment and employee relations projects on behalf of various multinational clients.

Johan's practice spans a range of industries, including financial services, consulting, aviation, media, retail, manufacturing and mining. He focuses on multijurisdictional employment law and employee relations projects, from amending contracts, benefits and policies across multiple jurisdictions, to employment aspects of legal entity integration and post-transaction integration, to restructuring and reductions in force in various locations.

With his award-winning team, he assists global clients with corporate restructuring, employment litigation, collective bargaining and trade union recognition, managing relations with trade unions, acting as a negotiator for management teams, managing industrial action, employment disputes, transfers of undertakings and the employment law implications of such transfers, and optimizing contracting models.

His experience also includes advising on voluntary and involuntary termination of employment, collective labor law issues, labor disputes and strategic advice in relation to trade unions.

Johan is well regarded for his comments on employment matters and often comments in the media on various employment law issues. He contributed the chapter on “Industrial Relations in the New World of Work” to the textbook “HR: The New Agenda” in 2021 and is currently writing a textbook on employment contracts and workplace policies, scheduled for release in 2024.

Professional Memberships

- Law Society of the Northern Provinces – Member

- South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW) – Member

- Pension Lawyers Association - Member

Publications

- Botes, J. 2023. Labour law is not so bad for SA business

- Botes, J. 2023. The case for dismissal: Is negligence a result of poor performance or misconduct? (iol.co.za)

- Botes, J. 2023. Bridging the pay gap through transparency (persfin.co.za)

- Botes, J. 2024. Adapting to change and the growing call for DEI - BizCommunity

- Botes, J. 2024. ESG and employment greatest risks in 2024 - WhyAfrica

- Botes, J. 2024. Managing annual leave – essential to sustaining a culture of high performance - HR Future

Expert in these Jurisdictions

South Africa

Languages Spoken

English, Afrikaans, Dutch

Education