South Africa Employment Law

Normal working hours shall not exceed more than 45 hours in any week (exclusive overtime). An employee’s normal working hours per day shall not exceed 9 hours (exclusive overtime) if the employee works for 5 days or fewer in a week; or 8 hours  (exclusive overtime) on any day if the employee works more than 5 days per week.

An employee’s normal working hours of work may by agreement be extended by up to 15 minutes in a day but not more than 60 minutes in a week to enable an employee whose duties include serving members of the public to continue performing those duties after the completion of normal hours of work.  

Employees who earn below the income threshold and work less than four hours in a day are entitled to a minimum of four hours’ pay for that day. A day is defined as a 24-hour period starting from the time the employee usually begins work.

Reduction of Work Hours – An employer and employee through a collective bargaining agreement can reduce the maximum normal working hours of work (i.e. 45 hours in a week and 9 hours in a day ) to a maximum of 40 normal hours of work per week and 8 normal hours of work per day. 

Compressed working week  – A written agreement may allow an employee to work up to twelve hours in a day without receiving overtime pay. However, such an agreement cannot require or permit an employee to:

• • • Work more than 45 ordinary hours in any week,
    • Work more than 10 hours of overtime in any week, or
    • Work more than 5 days in any week.

Averaging of hours of work – In accordance with a collective agreement, an employee’s ordinary working hours and overtime can be averaged over a period of up to four months. During this period, employers are prohibited from requiring or allowing employees bound by the agreement to exceed an average of 45 ordinary hours per week and an average of five hours of overtime per week.

Furthermore, these collective agreements are subject to a duration limit and will automatically expire after 12 months. Employment Act, Section 8, 9, 11, 12.

Record-Keeping Requirements – Every employer must keep a record containing at least the following information:

• • • • • The employee’s name and occupation;
        • The time worked by each employee;
        • The remuneration paid to each employee;
        • The date of birth of any employee under 18 years of age: and
        • Any other prescribed information.

A record must be kept by the employer for a period of three years from the date of the last entry in the record. Section 31 of the Employment Act.

Any work performed beyond 9 hours in a day ( 8 hours per day in a 5-day workweek) or 45 hours per week is considered Overtime work.

An employer may not require or permit an employee to work overtime unless it is per an employment agreement. Employees cannot be required or permitted to work more than 10 hours of overtime in a week or more than 3 hours of overtime in a day.

Pay – An employee is entitled to receive premium pay of at least 1.5 times their regular wage for any hours worked beyond their normal working hours.

Compensatory Rest Period: An agreement can allow an employer to either:

• Compensate an employee with their ordinary wage for overtime worked and provide at least 30 minutes of paid time off for each hour of overtime, or
• Provide at least 90 minutes of paid time off for each hour of overtime worked.

The employer must grant this paid time off within one month of the employee earning it, though a written agreement can extend this period to 12 months. Any agreement regarding overtime automatically ends after one year. Employment Act, Section 10.

Night work means work performed after 6 pm and before 6 am the next day. 

An employer may schedule night work for an employee only if agreed upon and must compensate them either with a shift allowance or by reducing their working hours. Additionally, the employer must ensure transportation is provided between the employee’s residence and workplace at the start and end of their shift.

An employer requiring an employee to work regularly between 11 pm to 6 am must:

• • • Inform the employee, either verbally in a language they understand or in writing, about any health and safety risks related to the work required, and the employee’s right to undergo a medical examination;
    • Upon request, facilitate and cover the cost of a medical examination for the employee regarding these risks, before or shortly after starting such work, at appropriate intervals during continued night work; and
    • Transfer the employee to suitable day work within a reasonable timeframe if the employee develops a health condition due to performing night work, if it is feasible for the employer to make such a transfer.

An employee is considered to work regularly if they work for more than 1 hour between 11 pm and 6 pm at least five times per month or 50 times per year. Section 17 Employment Act.

An employee who works continuously for more than 5 hours is entitled to receive at least 1 continuous hour of unpaid meal break. An employee during a meal interval may be required or permitted to perform only duties that cannot be left unattended and cannot be performed by another employee.

Compensation for Meal Break:  An employee must be remunerated – 

• • • for a meal break during which the employee is required either to work or to be available for work; and
    • for any part of a meal break that is longer than 75 minutes, unless the employee lives on the premises where the workplace is situated.

Work is considered continuous unless interrupted by a break of at least 60 minutes. If an employee agrees in writing, meal breaks can be shortened to 30 minutes or meal breaks can even be done away with for employees who work less than six hours in a day. Section 14 of the Employment Act.

Breastfeeding Break

For the first six months after the birth of a child, employees who are breast-feeding should have two 30-minute breaks each workday to breast-feed or express milk. While this is non-binding, courts and tribunals consider them in labor law disputes.

Daily Rest Period – An employee is entitled to a daily rest period of at least 12 consecutive hours between ending and recommencing work. The daily rest period may be reduced to 10 hours through a written agreement for employees who live on the work premises and have a meal interval of at least three hours. Section 15 of the Employment Act.

Weekly/Sunday Rest Period

An employee is entitled to a weekly rest period of at least 36 consecutive hours, which must include Sunday unless otherwise agreed.

An agreement in writing may provide for:

• • • a rest period of at least 60 consecutive hours every two weeks; or 
    • An employee’s weekly rest period is to be reduced by up to eight hours in any week if the rest period in the following week is extended equivalently.

Section 15 of the Employment Act.

Pay – If an employee works on Sunday, they must receive premium pay of at least double their wage for each hour worked, unless Sunday is part of their regular work schedule.

If an employee works fewer hours on a Sunday than their regular shift and their earned pay is less than their ordinary daily wage, the employer must pay them their ordinary daily wage.

Hours worked on a Sunday by an employee who does not usually work on Sundays are excluded from the calculation of their ordinary hours of work. However, these hours count towards the maximum allowed daily and weekly overtime (3 and 10 hours, respectively).

If an employee’s shift extends over Sunday and another day, the entire shift is considered to have been worked on Sunday, unless the majority of the shift falls on the other day, in which case it is deemed to have been worked on that day.

Compensatory Rest Period: An employee can be compensated as paid time off for Sunday work instead of cash payment. For employees who do not typically work on Sundays, Sunday hours are not included in their regular working hours as outlined in their employment contract. For instance, if an employee is contracted for 45 hours per week but has only worked 40 hours, the employer cannot require them to work an additional 5 hours on Sunday to complete their contracted hours. Employment Act, Section 16.

An employer must pay an employee who works on a Sunday at double the employee’s wage for each hour worked unless the employee ordinarily works on a Sunday. In which case the employer must pay the employee at one and one-half times the employee’s wage for each hour worked.

If an employee works less than the employee’s ordinary shift on a Sunday and the payment that the employee is entitled to be less than the employee’s ordinary daily wage, the employer must pay the employee the employee’s ordinary daily wage.

Any time worked on a Sunday by an employee who does not ordinarily work on a Sunday is not taken into account in calculating an employee’s ordinary hours of work but is taken into account in calculating the maximum number of daily and weekly overtime ( 3 and 10 respectively) hours worked by the employee.

If a shift worked by an employee falls on a Sunday and another day the whole shift is deemed to have been working on Sunday. unless the greater portion of the shift was worked on the other day. in which case the whole shift is deemed to have been worked on the other day.

Time off in Lieu

Compensation for Sunday work may also be given in the form of paid time off work, in lieu of cash payment. Sunday time, for an employee who does not ordinarily work on a Sunday, does not form part of his ordinary hours of work, or in terms of his employment contract. In other words, if an employee is contracted to work 45 hours per week, but he has only worked 40 hours for the week for whatever reason, the employer cannot demand that he must work 5 hours on Sunday to make up his normal time. Section 16 Employment Act.