Tag Archives: Labour Law

Section 1 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 defines remuneration as any payment in money or in kind, or both in money and in kind, made or owing to any person in return for that person working for any other person, including the State.
The Act further provides that payment of any remuneration must be paid in South African currency and can be calculated either on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis. The payment thereof must be paid either in cash, by cheque or by direct deposit into an account designated by the employee. Any remuneration paid in cash or by cheque must be given to each employee at the workplace or at a place agreed to by the employee, during the employees’ working hours or within 15 minutes of commencement or conclusion of those hours and in a sealed envelope which becomes the property of the employee.
Remuneration must not be paid later than seven days after the completion of the period for which the remuneration is payable which in terms of the Act must be agreed to contractually; or when the contract of employment is terminated between employer and employee party.
This article aims to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. For more information contact 021 919 6418 OR erin@joblaw.co.za

Section 34(A) of the BCEA: Payment of Contributions to Benefits Funds.
This section of the BCEA covers the deductions of Pension, Provident, Retirement, Medical aid and/or similar funds.
Before diving into payment of benefits, Employers must take note that there is no obligation to pay certain benefits.
The only time an Employer is Obliged to pay for benefits is if stipulated as such in a Collective Agreement or Legislation for the industry the company operates in.
If an Employer is obliged to pay benefits for their Employee, they can deduct the amount owing from the employee and the money deducted must be paid into the Benefit Fund account within seven days.
If an Employer is required to contribute to a Benefit Fund and this contribution is not deducted from the Employees remuneration, the Employer must pay this contribution over within seven days from which the payment was made.
As previously stated, the Benefits that should be paid is highly dependent on the industry in which the Employer operates within.
It is therefore recommended that the Employer seeks advise from a Labour Consultant/Lawyer before making any obligations to a Benefits fund.
This article aims to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. For more information contact 021 919 6418 OR erin@joblaw.co.za

Although an Employee’s remuneration is something that can be negotiated between Employer and Employee, depending on the sector, there are some minimum wages that all Employers’ should abide by. The National minimum wage and the lowest hourly rate for any employee to earn is set at R23.19 per hour.
If you are working on a certain minimum wage (hourly Rate) and would like to establish what the monthly remuneration would amount to, you can use the below format:
Rate per hour * hours a day required to work = Day Rate
Day rate * Days per week required to work = Week wage
Week wage * 4.33 = Monthly Wage
If you have the monthly wage and would like to ensure that you are paying the required minimum wage, you will use the below format:
Monthly wage / 4.33 = Weekly wage
Weekly wage / days a week required to work= Daily wage
Daily wage / Hours a day required to work = Hourly rate.
Once you have established the Employee’s hourly rate, you will be able to calculate any overtime, Saturday, Sunday and/or public holiday payment rates.
If an Employee’s normal working hours are from Monday to Friday and you require them to work over a weekend, such hours should be paid at a different rate in.
If an Employee’s normal working hours are scheduled from Mondays to Sundays, they will earn their normal rate on a Saturday and 1.5 times their normal rate for the hours worked on a Sunday. Should an Employee be required to work on a public holiday, such hours would be paid at double their normal hourly rate, regardless of the day the public holiday falls on and/or normal working hours.
Employees should be paid in South African currency, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Payment can be made in cash, by cheque or by direct deposit into an account of the Employee’s choosing. Payment that is made in cash or by cheque should be provided to the employee during working hours, or within 15 minutes of commencement or conclusion of those hours and must be in a sealed envelope.
All outstanding payments due to the Employee should be paid to the Employee no later than seven days after the completion of the pay period for which the remuneration is payable, or the termination of the employment relationship. It is important to note that the aforementioned seven day period does not apply to any pension or provident fund payments due to an employee.
For more information contact 021 919 6418 OR erin@joblaw.co.za

Employers are required to keep records of their employees as stipulated in the BCEA section 31.
The records the employer is required to keep as per the BCEA is as followed:
– The name and occupation of the Employee.
– The time worked by each employee, for example the hours of work in a week.
– The remuneration paid to the employee, and this must be stipulated on the payslip as per section 33 of the BCEA.
– The date of birth of an employee who is under the age of 18.
– Furthermore, any other prescribed information.
All these records as stipulated above must be kept on record for at least three years after the last entry.
For an example if an employee’s contract expires on the 31st of December 2022, you as employer will be required to keep all relevant information until the 31st of December 2025.
The good news for employer is if you have a comprehensive contract and payroll system all the require information will be stipulated on the contract and payslip.
It will then just be the duty of the employer to keep these records for three years in a way that complies with the POPI act.
This article aims to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. For more information contact 021 919 6418 OR erin@joblaw.co.za

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets out that public holiday(s) are concluded in accordance with an agreement. The payment of public holidays determines if the employee would or would not ordinarily work on such day and provides that if an employee does not work on the public holiday he/she shall be entitled to receive at least the wage that the employee would ordinarily have received for work on that day.

If an employee does work on the public holiday at least double the amount that the employee would have ordinarily have received on that day. If it is greater (for example: employees who work half a day) the Act provides that the employee shall receive his/her ordinary wage for work that day and for time worked on that day should it exceed the half day the employee would ordinarily have worked.

The Act further provides that if an employee works on a public holiday on which the employee would not ordinarily work (say for example: his or her shift does not ordinarily fall on such public holiday day), the employer must pay the employee the amount equal to; the employees’ ordinary daily wage and the amount earned by the employee for work performed on that day or time worked.

As for shift workers, if a greater portion of the employees shift falls on a public holiday say Thursday from 18h00 to 02h00 the Friday then the whole shift is deemed to have been worked on the public holiday, however if the greater portion of the shift was worked on the other day say from Thursday 21h00 to 18h00 the Friday then the whole shift is deemed to have been worked on the other day and therefore not seen as a public holiday worked by the employee. The Employer must pay the employee for a public holiday on the employees usual pay day.

This article aims to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. For more information contact 021 919 6418 OR erin@joblaw.co.za