Last Updated: 9 May 2026
TL;DR
Every motor industry employer covered by the MIBCO Main Agreement 2025–2028 must appoint a Liable Person. This person is legally responsible for pension fund compliance, employee data accuracy, and submissions through the MIBCO Employer Portal. Getting the appointment wrong or skipping it, exposes your business to fines, back-pay claims, and MIBCO arbitration. This guide covers who to appoint, how to train them, and what happens when MIBCO comes to check.
The MIBCO Main Agreement requires every registered motor industry employer to appoint a Liable Person. This is not a suggestion. It is a structural compliance obligation under the Labour Relations Act No. 66 of 1995 and the bargaining council framework it authorises - formalised in MIBCO Circular 2024/00010, issued 1 August 2024, which required all employer participants in the motor industry to register a Liable Person on the Employer Portal.
The Liable Person is the named individual in your business who carries legal accountability for MIBCO compliance. If your pension fund submissions are late, payroll records are missing, or employee data is incorrect, the Liable Person is responsible. So is the employer.
Choosing the wrong person for this role, or appointing someone without proper training, is one of the most common compliance gaps ThreeOneSolutions uncovers during motor industry audits.
Who Qualifies as a MIBCO Liable Person?
The MIBCO Main Agreement does not prescribe a job title. It prescribes a function. Your Liable Person must be capable of doing the following work accurately and on time:
- Managing employee data in the MIBCO Employer Portal
- Processing pension fund contributions and remittances to MIFA — Motor Industry Fund Administrators
- Maintaining compliance records against the current agreement
- Responding to MIBCO queries and inspection notices
In practice, this is most often a payroll manager, HR manager, or senior administrator. In smaller businesses; workshops, tyre fitment centres, parts suppliers, it is frequently the owner.
Registration is done by completing the Liable Person Registration Form and emailing it to LiablePersonReg@mibco.org.za. If the Liable Person is responsible for more than one site, an establishment addendum must be completed. Once submitted, MIBCO sends login credentials via email and SMS. The full process is set out in MIBCO Circular 2024/00010.
What disqualifies someone from the role is not their title. It is their unfamiliarity with the agreement. A Liable Person who cannot distinguish between ordinary hours, overtime, and the leave provisions in the MIBCO Main Agreement is a liability not an asset.
ThreeOneSolutions helps motor industry employers get this appointment right the first time, before a MIBCO inspector has to point it out.
What Does a MIBCO Liable Person Actually Do?
The role covers four core functions. Each carries compliance risk if mishandled.
1. Employee data management: Every new hire, termination, or grade change must be recorded accurately in the MIBCO Employer Portal. Errors in employee records create pension fund shortfalls. Shortfalls trigger back-pay liability.
2. Pension fund contributions: Motor industry employees are enrolled in the Motor Industry Retirement Fund (MIRF). Contributions are calculated on a set formula under the Main Agreement. Late or short payments attract interest penalties under the MIBCO dispute resolution framework.
3. Wage schedule compliance: The Liable Person must verify that every pay run reflects the current MIBCO wage schedule including any sector-specific updates. The 2025–2028 agreement includes revised rates effective 1 October 2025. Any pay run that falls below the prescribed minimum is a compliance failure from that date not from the date it is discovered.
4. Inspection readiness: MIBCO inspectors conduct unannounced site visits. The Liable Person must maintain records that can be produced on request: wage schedules, payslips, pension remittance confirmations, and employment contracts aligned with the current agreement.
This is exactly the kind of compliance gap ThreeOneSolutions helps you close before it costs you. If you are unsure whether your Liable Person has a handle on all four functions, a MIBCO compliance audit is the fastest way to find out.
How Do You Train a MIBCO Liable Person?
Training is not a once-off event. The MIBCO Main Agreement is a living document. Rates change. Circulars are issued. Sector-specific obligations are updated. Your Liable Person must stay current.
Step 1: Establish baseline knowledge. Before anything else, confirm that your Liable Person has read the MIBCO Main Agreement 2025–2028 in full, particularly the sections covering their specific sector. A Liable Person at a fuel station faces different obligations than one at a franchised dealership.
Step 2: Portal proficiency. Your Liable Person must be able to navigate the MIBCO Employer Portal without assistance. This includes submitting returns, updating employee records, and pulling compliance reports.
Step 3: Ongoing education. Check the MIBCO website for circulars every month. Attend training when it is available. MIBCO circulars carry legal weight, missing one can leave your payroll out of compliance for months before you realise it.
At ThreeOneSolutions, we offer compliance training structured around the 2025–2028 agreement, covering wage schedules, pension obligations, leave provisions, and disciplinary procedures. Your Liable Person can build the knowledge base they need without wading through legislative text alone.
How Do You Maintain MIBCO Compliance Once the Liable Person Is in Place?
Appointing a Liable Person opens the door. These habits keep you inside it.
Monthly payroll audit. Run a monthly check against the current MIBCO wage schedule before processing payroll. If a rate has been updated by circular and your payroll software has not loaded it, your pay run will be non-compliant even if nothing else changed.
Quarterly records review. Every quarter, pull your employment contracts, payslips, and pension remittance records. Cross-check them against the Main Agreement. Flag anything that has drifted.
Annual compliance check At least once per year, conduct a full compliance audit against the MIBCO Main Agreement. This is the single most reliable way to catch accumulating errors before they become arbitration awards.
Compliance does not run itself. It runs on systems. Build the system, and the compliance follows.
What Happens When You Receive a MIBCO Non-Compliance Notice?
A MIBCO non-compliance notice means an inspector has identified a gap. Your response speed determines the outcome.
Read the notice in full. The notice specifies the exact obligation that was not met. It may be late pension contributions, a payroll shortfall, or missing employee records. Understand exactly what is being cited before doing anything else.
Identify the root cause. Work with your Liable Person to trace the error to its source. A single month of short pension contributions is fixable. A systemic payroll misalignment that runs back 18 months is a different problem and a much larger liability.
Correct and submit. Make the payment or submission. Update the records. Do it fast. MIBCO's Dispute Resolution Centre (DRC) calculates interest from the date of non-compliance not the date of the notice.
Notify MIBCO. Confirm the correction in writing. This closes the loop and prevents the matter from escalating to a DRC referral.
Fix the system. A non-compliance notice is a signal that a process broke down. Find where it broke. Rebuild the process so it does not break again. Set calendar reminders for submissions. Verify payroll against the current schedule every month. Train your Liable Person on the specific obligation that failed.
Under the Labour Relations Act No. 66 of 1995, a binding arbitration award issued by the DRC carries the same legal force as a court order. That means sheriff enforcement and attachment of assets from a payroll process failure that costs almost nothing to fix before it escalates.
If you receive a notice and need help calculating the liability or structuring a response, ThreeOneSolutions.com can work through it with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who must appoint a Liable Person under MIBCO? Every employer covered by the MIBCO Main Agreement 2025–2028 must appoint a Liable Person. This includes dealerships, workshops, parts suppliers, body shops, tyre fitment centres, and fuel retailers - whether or not they are registered MIBCO members. The Main Agreement applies by extension under Section 32(2) of the Labour Relations Act. The registration requirement was formally issued to all employer participants in MIBCO Circular 2024/00010, dated 1 August 2024.
Can the owner of a small motor industry business be the Liable Person? Yes. In smaller operations - workshops, tyre fitment centres, sole-trader dealerships - the owner frequently serves as the Liable Person. The requirement is functional: the Liable Person must be able to manage MIBCO portal submissions, pension contributions, and payroll compliance. Title and ownership structure are irrelevant.
What happens if no Liable Person is appointed? Failure to appoint a Liable Person does not exempt you from the obligations the role carries. MIBCO holds the employer accountable regardless. If a MIBCO inspector identifies missing submissions or unpaid contributions, the back-pay liability and interest run from the date of non-compliance not from the date of the inspection.
Does the Liable Person need formal qualifications? No formal qualification is prescribed by MIBCO. The role requires working knowledge of the Main Agreement, proficiency with the MIBCO Employer Portal, and the discipline to manage recurring compliance deadlines. Structured training covering the 2025–2028 wage schedules, pension obligations, and sector-specific obligations closes any knowledge gap.
How often does the Liable Person's training need to be updated? At minimum, when a new MIBCO agreement takes effect and when MIBCO issues a circular that affects your sector. The 2025–2028 agreement introduced changes to wage schedules effective 1 October 2025 and a compulsory medical insurance scheme effective 1 January 2026. A Liable Person who was trained before these changes and not updated since is working from an outdated picture.
What is the difference between a MIBCO DRC referral and a CCMA case? MIBCO's Dispute Resolution Centre handles disputes that fall under the MIBCO Main Agreement including wage shortfalls, pension contributions, and leave disputes. The CCMA handles matters that are not covered by a bargaining council agreement. In the motor industry, MIBCO is the first port of call for most employment disputes. Unresolved MIBCO matters can escalate to arbitration awards that carry the same force as a court order.
Not sure if your Liable Person appointment and compliance processes are current? Start with a free MIBCO compliance check
Written by the Founder & MIBCO Compliance Specialist at ThreeOneSolutions.com - HR compliance for South Africa's motor industry.