7 Judgment No. CCZ 2/18 Constitutional Application No. CCZ 86/15 The applicants were aggrieved by the fact that the new obligation on employers terminating contracts of employment on notice, including contracts without time limits, to pay compensation for loss of employment calculated in terms of s 12C(2) was given retrospective effect from 17 July 2015. The transitional provision is as follows: “18 Transitional provision Section 12 of the Act [Chapter 28:01] as amended by this Act applies to every employee whose services were terminated on three months’ notice on or after the 17 th of July, 2015.” The contention by the applicants was that the Zuva Petroleum judgment confirmed that at common law an employer had a right to terminate a contract of employment on notice without any obligation to pay the employee any money other than what was due to him or her in respect of the remaining three months of employment to which the notice related. They argued that the transitional provision retrospectively imposed on them a financial obligation which did not exist at the time they lawfully terminated contracts of employment with their employees on notice. The applicants contended that the retrospectivity of the transitional provision is unconstitutional. It is common cause that the transitional provision gives retrospective effect to the provisions of s 12 of the Act. As a result, it imposed on the applicants the new obligation to pay compensation for loss of employment to the employees whose contracts they terminated on notice on or after 17 July 2015 as if the obligation was part of the law on termination of contracts of employment on notice at the time they exercised the right to terminate the employees’ contracts.