Asma Cachalia

Asma Cachalia is a Director in the Employment Law practice at Thomson Wilks, where she advises local and multinational employers across the full spectrum of individual and collective labour law. Her practice covers both day-to-day employee relations and more complex strategic employment matters, with particular experience in collective labour law, organisational rights, industrial action, restructuring and workforce-related risk.

Her experience includes advising on misconduct and performance management, discrimination and harassment, health and safety, retrenchments, strikes and lock-outs and other workplace relations matters. Asma has represented employers before the CCMA, Bargaining Councils, Labour Court, Labour Appeal Court and Constitutional Court and works with clients across sectors including transport, mining, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and retail.

Asma has also advised employers through significant organisational and operational change, including workforce restructuring, business transfers and employment considerations arising from mergers and acquisitions. Her work extends to employment-related due diligence, the drafting of executive and workforce agreements and workplace policies and the delivery of training on developments in employment law. She has also contributed to national television, radio and print commentary on employment law issues.

Asma holds a Bachelor of Arts, with majors in Law and International Relations, and an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand. She was admitted as an attorney in 2016 and joined Thomson Wilks as a Director in 2025 following several years in a specialist employment law practice, where she progressed from Associate to Director.

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Asma’s experience includes:

Asma provides comprehensive employment law support to employers, including representation in employment disputes, advice on industrial action, workplace investigations and disciplinary procedures, business restructuring, transfers and workforce planning. She also advises on employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions and related due diligence, drafts employment agreements, workplace policies and governance frameworks, prepares variation and exemption applications and delivers training across a broad range of employment law topics.

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Asma’s areas of speciality

• Employment & Labour Law
• Collective Labour Law
• Employment Litigation
• Industrial Action
• Organisational Rights
• Workplace Investigations & Disciplinary Procedures
• Retrenchments & Workforce Restructuring
• Discrimination & Harassment
• Employment-Related Due Diligence
• Employment Agreements & Workplace Policies
• Employee Relations

Asma combines substantial employment law experience with a practical understanding of workplace relations, helping employers address both immediate employee issues and broader organisational change with clear, commercially focused advice.