Our Team
Nicolene Schoonbee
Labour Law & IR Practitioner · Director & Employers’ Organisation Representative
Nicolene Schoonbee has worked in labour law and industrial relations since 2005, is a director of Ardent Labour Group and leads its labour law practice. As a representative of a registered employers’ organisation, she has the right of appearance for employers at the CCMA and bargaining councils, and advises on disciplinary processes and day-to-day IR compliance. She is the first point of contact for labour law enquiries.
Nicolene also facilitates training and skills development — equipping managers and HR teams to run disciplinary hearings, manage poor performance, and handle workplace processes correctly and with confidence.
Dewald Schoonbee
Labour Law & IR Practitioner · Systems Developer
Dewald Schoonbee has practised in labour law and industrial relations since 2010. Over that time he has represented South African employers at the CCMA and bargaining councils, appeared in the Labour Court, and built and run labour-focused businesses. Today he is a director of Ardent Labour Group and the developer behind its technology — the purpose-built business-intelligence platform that powers ALG Systems.
He writes for our Insights section to give employers clear, practical answers to the labour questions they face day to day — drawn from more than a decade of representing the employer side of the table.
Ardent Labour Group represents employers at the CCMA and bargaining councils, chairs and runs disciplinary hearings, manages retrenchment processes, negotiates with unions, and drafts the contracts, policies and IR documents that keep businesses compliant and defensible. The guides published here are drawn from that hands-on work with employers across the country.
How we work
Ardent Labour Group is deliberately small and senior. When you call, you speak to the practitioner who will handle your matter — not a call centre, and not a junior who escalates. That matters in labour law, where the facts are usually messy and the right advice depends on details that get lost in a hand-off.
We act for employers. That is a deliberate choice: it means our advice is consistent, there is no conflict of interest, and we know what the other side is going to argue because we have spent two decades on the opposite side of that table.
We also tell clients when they are wrong. If a dismissal will not survive scrutiny, the useful advice is to settle or to fix the process — not to run up fees defending something indefensible. Most of the value we add happens before a dispute exists, in getting contracts, policies and hearings right the first time.
What we do
- CCMA & bargaining council representation — from referral through conciliation and arbitration to award.
- Disciplinary hearings — independent chairing, charge sheets, initiating and presenting the employer’s case.
- Retrenchments — Section 189 and 189A consultation, selection criteria and severance.
- Contracts & policies — sector and bargaining-council specific, kept current.
- Training & skills development — equipping your managers, and turning your levy into B-BBEE points.
- Business intelligence — turning operational data into daily reporting and accountability.
That last one is unusual for a labour practice, and it exists because the two problems turn out to be the same problem. Cash shortfalls, absenteeism and non-performance show up in the data long before they become disciplinary matters. Being able to see the pattern and handle the consequence properly is what the combination gives you.
Where we work
We are based in Rustenburg, North West, and act for employers across South Africa — on site where it is needed, and remotely where it is faster. Our clients range from small businesses with a handful of staff to operations running hundreds of employees across multiple depots, in sectors including transport, security, cleaning, retail, hospitality, motor and engineering.
Get in touch
Prefer us to call you? Request a free consultation and we’ll come back to you.